Mole: The Free, Open‑Source Command‑Line Tool That Deep‑Cleans Your Mac

Running out of storage on your Mac? You’re not alone. Even with large SSDs, macOS quietly accumulates caches, temporary files, logs, browser data, and leftover junk from apps you deleted months—or years—ago. Over time, those forgotten files can eat up dozens of gigabytes and noticeably slow down your system.

Mole is a free, open‑source command‑line utility designed to solve exactly that problem. Built as a lightweight yet powerful alternative to popular paid apps like CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, Sensei, and iStat Menus, Mole brings deep system cleaning, disk analysis, optimization, and real‑time monitoring into a single tool you run from Terminal.

Developed by Tw93—the creator of Pake, a well‑known project for turning websites into desktop apps—Mole focuses on efficiency, transparency, and control. One simple command can reclaim gigabytes of disk space without bloated interfaces, background daemons, or aggressive upsells.

One Tool, Five Core Features

Mole combines the functionality of multiple Mac utilities into a single command. Instead of juggling several apps, you access everything through a clean, interactive Terminal menu.

1. Deep System Cleaning (mo clean)

The mo clean command scans your Mac for unnecessary files, including:

• Application caches
• Temporary system files
• Browser data (Safari, Chrome, Firefox)
• Development tool leftovers (Xcode, Node.js, npm)
• System logs and crash reports
• Trash contents

Before deleting anything, Mole lets you preview the results using a safe simulation mode:

mo clean –dry-run

This shows exactly what will be removed and how much disk space you’ll recover. Once you’re satisfied, run the actual cleanup:

mo clean

In real‑world use, it’s common to recover several gigabytes in just a few seconds.

2. Complete App Uninstallation (mo uninstall)

Dragging an app to the Trash doesn’t truly remove it. macOS leaves behind preferences, caches, support files, launch agents, and logs scattered across your Library folders.

Mole’s mo uninstall command fixes that. It opens an interactive list of installed applications, showing their size and installation date. After you select an app, Mole scans more than a dozen system locations to remove:

• Preferences (~/Library/Preferences)
• Caches (~/Library/Caches)
• Application Support files
• Launch Agents and background services
• Logs, cookies, plugins, and extensions

The actual space reclaimed often exceeds the app’s visible size in Finder—sometimes by hundreds of megabytes or more.

3. macOS Optimization and Maintenance (mo optimize)

The mo optimize command performs advanced maintenance tasks that macOS doesn’t always handle automatically:

• Rebuilds system databases
• Clears system and user caches
• Resets network services
• Cleans swap files
• Refreshes Finder and Dock
• Reindexes Spotlight

mo optimize

After running, Mole reports what was changed and may suggest additional actions—such as running a disk analysis if free space is critically low or installing pending macOS updates.

4. Visual Disk Space Analysis (mo analyze)

Need to know what’s actually consuming your storage? mo analyze turns Terminal into an interactive disk explorer, similar to DaisyDisk but fully text‑based.

mo analyze

By default, Mole scans your home folder and displays:

• Folder names
• Disk usage percentages
• Size in gigabytes

You can navigate using arrow keys, drill into folders, open items in Finder, or delete files directly. Mole also highlights:

• Large individual files
• Old files (older than six months)
• Very large items using filters (for example, files over 24 GB)

It’s an efficient way to spot storage hogs in seconds.

5. Real‑Time System Monitoring (mo status)

With mo status, Mole becomes a live system dashboard—similar to iStat Menus, but inside Terminal.

mo status

The interface updates in real time and displays:

• CPU usage
• Memory and swap usage
• Disk activity (read/write speeds)
• Network throughput
• Battery health, temperature, and cycle count
• Top resource‑hungry processes

Mole also calculates a global system health score (0–100) based on CPU load, RAM pressure, disk usage, temperature, and I/O activity—making it easy to spot potential bottlenecks at a glance.

How to Install Mole on macOS

Installing Mole takes less than a minute.

Option 1: One‑Line Install Script

Open Terminal and run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash

This installs Mole into /usr/local/bin and creates a convenient mo alias.

Option 2: Install via Homebrew

If you use Homebrew, automatic updates are even easier:

brew install tw93/tap/mole

Once installed, simply type mo in Terminal to access all features.

Is Mole Worth Using?

If you already own a paid tool like CleanMyMac, Mole may not completely replace it. However, for anyone looking for a free, transparent, and powerful Mac maintenance tool, Mole is an outstanding option.

It covers the essentials—deep cleaning, complete app removal, system optimization, disk analysis, and real‑time monitoring—without ads, subscriptions, or hidden processes running in the background.

Yes, it’s command‑line based, which might intimidate some users. But in practice, it’s surprisingly user‑friendly: type mo, choose an option with the arrow keys, and press Enter.

Final Thoughts

Mole proves that you don’t need expensive, bloated software to keep your Mac fast and clutter‑free. With a single open‑source tool, you can reclaim disk space, monitor system health, and maintain macOS like a power user—all while staying in control.

If you’re comfortable opening Terminal and want a lightweight alternative to commercial Mac cleaners, Mole absolutely deserves a place on your system.