Mac cleanup commands

Pick the caches you want gone — node_modules, DerivedData, Gradle, Homebrew, Docker — and get two commands: one that measures what each is costing you, one that deletes it. Everything on the list regenerates itself; the things that don't are listed separately, with the reason.

Written for developers who already know what these paths are. Almost nothing on the list is destructive — the cost of deleting it is a rebuild or a re-download — but the commands run as you, with no confirmation and no undo. Read the script before you paste it, and use it at your own risk.

Project folders

Dependencies and build output living inside your repositories. The single biggest win on most machines, and all of it comes back with one install or build.

node_modulesInstalled dependencies across every project under the root. Restore with an install in the projects you are actually working on.
Next.js build outputEvery .next directory. Regenerated by the next dev or build run.
Turborepo, Expo and bundler cachesThe .turbo, .expo, .parcel-cache and .vite directories. Deleting them costs you one cold build, nothing else.
Gradle build output in projectsThe build, .gradle and .cxx directories of Android modules. Matched by looking for a build.gradle beside them, so a JavaScript project's build folder is never touched.

Package manager caches

Downloaded archives kept so the next install is fast. Clearing them makes exactly one install slow.

npmThe ~/.npm content-addressable store.
pnpmPrunes packages in the pnpm store that no project on this machine links to. Projects you have not opened in a while will re-download.
YarnThe global Yarn cache directory.
BunBun's install cache.
HomebrewDownloaded bottles and outdated versions of installed formulae. Nothing you have installed is removed.
CocoaPodsCached pod sources and specs. The next pod install re-fetches them.
GoThe build cache and the module cache. The module cache is usually the larger of the two and can be several gigabytes.
pip and uvWheel caches for the Python toolchains. Virtual environments are untouched.

Xcode and simulators

The quietest disk hog on a Mac used for iOS work. DerivedData alone routinely passes 50 GB.

DerivedDataIntermediate build products and indexes for every project you have ever opened. The next build of each project is a full one.
iOS device supportSymbol files copied off every iOS version you have ever attached a device running. Old versions are dead weight.
Unavailable simulators and cachesRemoves simulators whose runtime is no longer installed, plus the CoreSimulator caches. Simulators you still use, and the apps installed in them, are left alone.
Erase every simulatorResets all simulators to factory contents. The devices themselves stay, so your list in Xcode is unchanged — but the apps, databases and screenshots inside them are gone, and that is where the gigabytes are.
Delete every simulatorThe blunt version: removes the devices too, not just their contents. Xcode recreates a default set for the installed runtimes on next launch, so this supersedes both entries above.

Android and Gradle

Everything here re-downloads or rebuilds. The one rule is stopping the daemons before the delete, not after.

Gradle caches, wrapper and daemonDependencies and the downloaded Gradle distributions in ~/.gradle. Your gradle.properties and any init scripts stay.
Android Studio cachesProject indexes and caches under ~/Library/Caches/Google.

Containers and the rest

Two more places that grow without anyone noticing.

Docker images and build cacheUnused images, stopped containers and the builder cache. Named volumes are not included, so database contents survive.
TrashEmptying the Trash actually reclaims the space it has been holding.

Your script

Run the first block, decide whether the space is worth it, then run the second. Nothing here runs on this page — it only writes the commands out.

Where your projects live

Searched recursively. Resolves to $HOME/code.

See what it is costing you

bash

ROOT="$HOME/code"

# node_modules
find "$ROOT" -type d -name node_modules -prune -exec du -sh {} + | sort -rh | head -20

# Next.js build output
find "$ROOT" -type d -name .next -prune -exec du -sh {} + | sort -rh | head -20

# npm
du -sh "$HOME/.npm" 2>/dev/null

# DerivedData
du -sh "$HOME/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData" 2>/dev/null

Delete it

bash

ROOT="$HOME/code"

# node_modules
find "$ROOT" -type d -name node_modules -prune -exec rm -rf {} +

# Next.js build output
find "$ROOT" -type d -name .next -prune -exec rm -rf {} +

# npm
npm cache clean --force

# DerivedData
rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData"

Before you run it

DerivedData: Quit Xcode first — it re-indexes on the next launch either way.

Left out on purpose

These are the neighbours of everything above, and they look just as disposable. They are not — each one holds something you cannot regenerate, so prune them by hand.

Xcode archives~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives carries the dSYMs for builds you have already shipped. Delete one and the crash reports from that release stop symbolicating.
Android emulators~/.android/avd is the emulators themselves and their disk state. Deleting one wipes everything installed inside it.
SDK system images and the NDKLarge, but a slow re-download and easy to remove selectively in the Android Studio SDK Manager instead.
Docker volumesdocker system prune above deliberately omits --volumes. Adding that flag is how you delete a local database.
dist and build foldersA sweep by name is tempting, but plenty of repositories commit a dist. Only the Gradle entry above matches build directories, and only next to a build.gradle.