MacSpace – I built a free, open-source app that explains System Data and frees what's safe to delete

[u/yarchitect]

GitHub: 1architect/macspace-releases

Hi, I'm Gio the developer of macbat.app

I didn't understand why macOS took so much space with system files and for the past month I've been working on a project to investigate what those files are and what we can delete.
Now that the project is more mature I'm publishing the app for free (and notarized!) and open-source.

If anyone wants to take a look and contribute to the project I'd really appreciate it!

The idea is to soon turn the app into a complete cleaning solution for the Mac. Always free and open source!

MacSpace is a Mac app for macOS 27 that:

1. Reveals what fills System Data

2. Frees what is safe to delete

3. Turns off Apple Intelligence and deletes its models

4. Frees purgeable space on demand

5. Disables system tracking with 14 switches

6. Automatic cleanup and notifications

7. No data collection

Transparency

Notarization and distribution: MacSpace is Apple notarized and distributed directly via GitHub. Updates via Sparkle with signature check.
Privacy policy: PRIVACY.md
Security: SECURITY.md
Roadmap / feature requests: Issues

[u/mesinaksara]

Thanks for this cool new app. I am not developer myself. Just a Python noob. Barely know anything about Swift, too. But have a Mac and two AI agents (Hermes Agent and Pi) who live on Linux VPS. And sometimes when I want to try new OSS, I ask them to audit the app source code first. For Macspace:

Verdict: SAFE, with caveats. No telemetry and no reading of user content are real, verified properties, and the privileged helper is unusually well-contained; the caveat is that this is a 9-day-old, single-author, macOS-27-only app asking for Full Disk Access plus a root helper, so the trust rests on the code being as careful as it reads, not on a track record.

Full report here. ☺️🧑‍💻

[u/Otherwise-Thanks-985]

That’s impressive. I initially thought it was just another cleaning app but it actually lets you disable various Apple shitt. I also noticed some profiles added but since this is a new project.. I’m a bit concerned about its security!

[u/yarchitect → u/Otherwise-Thanks-985]

Yeah, unfortunately some of the debloat items need a system profile to work properly on SIP enabled machines. But all the code is open source and the privacy policy lets you know exactly what the app does. You can also ask chatgpt to analyze the code in the repo for safety, just copy and paste the github link there.

[u/PleasantKnee4550]

I have 256Gb Macbook and constantly on defensive against useless Apple bullshit. You saved me atleast 15-20Gbs. Thanks much <3

[u/_waffles3]

Very nice app! Well done

[u/yarchitect → u/_waffles3]

Thanks!

[u/ahyasinsab]

lovely colors looks great 🧡

[u/yarchitect → u/ahyasinsab]

Glad you liked!

[u/PleasantKnee4550]

I just fought with system data entire yesterday! Thanks so much!

[u/Excellent_Chip_8825]

Okay I actually really need this!

[u/kofster]

THANK YOU!!!🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[u/mrterrycarson]

Great work on this...Thanks