BuildSweeper: build artifacts and cache cleaner for macOS

BuildSweeper is a native macOS cleanup utility for developers. It scans project folders and curated global cache locations, then helps you review and remove build artifacts, dependency caches, and temporary development files that are safe to recreate.

It is built for developers who work across multiple tools and ecosystems and want to reclaim disk space without manually hunting through Finder or Terminal.

BuildSweeper can detect common development ecosystems including Flutter, Node.js, iOS, Android, Rust, Python, Go, Java, Zig, Scala, Ruby, .NET, CMake, Bazel, Unreal Engine, and more. It identifies known build folders only inside recognized project roots.

It focuses on build artifacts, dependency caches, temporary tooling output, and global development caches such as node_modules, .dart_tool, DerivedData, Gradle caches, Cargo caches, Python caches, browser caches, editor caches, and other known developer-related storage hogs.

No. BuildSweeper scans the folders you explicitly choose for project cleanup, and separately offers a curated global cache scan for well-known developer cache locations.

Yes. BuildSweeper shows results in a hierarchical reviewable tree with sizes, descriptions, and selection controls, so you can inspect items and uncheck anything you do not want to remove.

That is up to you. BuildSweeper supports both Move to Trash and permanent deletion, so you can choose the cleanup mode that matches your risk tolerance.

BuildSweeper is designed to target recreatable build output and caches, not your source code. It also warns before deleting folders that may be in use by running apps or tools. As with any cleanup utility, you still review the final selection before removal.

In most cases, no. The folders BuildSweeper targets are typically generated files or caches that tools can rebuild. The tradeoff is that your next build, dependency restore, or app launch may take longer while those files are recreated.

BuildSweeper can scan curated cache locations for tools such as Xcode, VS Code, Cursor, Codex, Claude, Android tooling, Node.js package managers, Python tooling, Rust, Go, Gradle, CocoaPods, browsers, Dart/Flutter, and more.

Yes. BuildSweeper includes configurable scanning rules, so you can enable or disable entire ecosystems, individual folder patterns, and cache categories based on your workflow.

It skips system locations, version-control folders, and other protected or irrelevant paths by default. The goal is to stay focused on development-related cleanup rather than sweeping through your entire system indiscriminately.

BuildSweeper uses macOS security-scoped access for folders you select and stores that access so future scans do not keep prompting unnecessarily. For some protected locations, macOS may still require additional permission such as Full Disk Access.

No. BuildSweeper is privacy-first and does not rely on analytics or tracking. Scanning and cleanup happen locally on your Mac.

Yes. BuildSweeper tracks lifetime reclaimed space and cleanup statistics, so you can see the impact of your cleanups over time.

Yes. BuildSweeper includes a menu bar disk space indicator so you can keep an eye on available storage while you work.

That is one of its main strengths. BuildSweeper is useful when storage is disappearing into old caches, stale build folders, editor data, simulator artifacts, package manager downloads, and other development leftovers that are easy to miss manually.

No. It is built to be multi-ecosystem from the start, which makes it useful if you switch between Apple platforms, web projects, backend services, mobile tooling, and language-specific package managers.