Mole Mac Cleaner Skill by [ara.so](https://ara.so) — Daily 2026 Skills collection. Mole ( mo ) is an all in one macOS maintenance CLI that combines deep cleaning, smart app uninstallation, disk analysis, system optimization, live monitoring, and project artifact purging into a single binary. Installation Core Commands Safe Preview Before Deleting Always dry run destructive commands first: Key Command Details mo clean — Deep Cleanup Cleans user app caches, browser caches (Chrome, Safari, Firefox), developer tool caches (Xcode, Node.js, npm), system logs, temp files, app specific caches (Spotify, Dropbox, Slack), and Trash. Whitelist config lives at ~/.config/mole/ . Edit it to protect paths you want to keep. mo uninstall — Smart App Removal Finds apps, shows size and last used date, then removes the app bundle plus all related files: Application Support, Caches, Preferences Logs, WebKit storage, Cookies Extensions, Plugins, Launch Daemons mo optimize — System Refresh Optimizations include: Rebuild system databases and clear caches Reset network services Refresh Finder and Dock Clean diagnostic and crash logs Remove swap files and restart dynamic pager Rebuild launch services and Spotlight index mo analyze — Disk Explorer JSON output example: Navigator shortcuts inside mo analyze : Key Action ↑↓ or j/k Navigate list ←→ or h/l Go back / Enter directory O Open in Finder F Reveal in Finder ⌫ Move to Trash (via Finder, safer than direct delete) L Show large files Q Quit mo status — Live Dashboard JSON output example: Shortcuts inside mo status : k toggles the cat mascot, q quits. mo purge — Project Artifact Cleanup Scans for node modules , target , build , dist , venv , and similar directories. Projects newer than 7 days are unselected by default. Configure custom scan paths ( ~/.config/mole/purge paths ): When this file exists, Mole uses only those paths. Otherwise it defaults to ~/Projects , ~/GitHub , ~/dev . Install fd for faster scanning: brew install fd mo installer — Installer File Cleanup Configuration Files All config lives in ~/.config/mole/ : File Purpose purge paths Custom directories for mo purge to scan operations.log Log of all file operations Disable operation logging: Shell Tab Completion Touch ID for sudo Scripting & Automation Patterns Check disk health in a script Get largest directories as JSON and process with jq Automated project purge in CI teardown Raycast / Alfred quick launchers Safety Boundaries mo analyze moves files to Trash via Finder (recoverable) instead of direct deletion — prefer it for ad hoc cleanup clean , uninstall , purge , installer , and remove are permanently destructive — always dry run first Mole validates paths and enforces protected directory rules; it skips or refuses high risk operations Operation log: ~/.config/mole/operations.log — disable with MO NO OPLOG=1 Review [SECURITY.md](https://github.com/tw93/Mole/blob/main/SECURITY.md) and [SECURITY AUDIT.md](https://github.com/tw93/Mole/blob/main/SECURITY AUDIT.md) before using in automated pipelines Troubleshooting Problem Solution mo: command not found Run brew install mole or re run install script; check $PATH Purge scan is slow Install fd : brew install fd External drives not appearing in analyze Run mo analyze /Volumes explicitly Want to protect a cache from being cleaned Run mo clean whitelist to add it Need to exclude an optimization step Run mo optimize whitelist Script getting interactive prompts Use dry run flag; check for MO NO OPLOG=1 env var Nightly update not working Nightly updates ( nightly ) only work with script install, not Homebrew Update & Remove

mole-mac-cleaner