Each tool is named for a planet, and each planet has a job. The naming is not decoration. It is how the tool tells you what it is about to touch.
CleanRainwater clears the soil.
Eleven cache categories, from Xcode builds to browser temp files, sorted by what is safest to remove. Review every file before it goes; untick what you want to keep.
UninstallRed dust covers what you've outgrown.
Pick the apps you no longer open. Mole finds the leftover preferences, support files, launch agents, and Dock entries. Anything that looks like personal data gets a warning first.
OptimizeClosest orbit, swiftest run.
Twenty-two safe maintenance tasks, one tap. Rebuild indexes, flush DNS, prune old logs. Enter your password once; future runs remember.
AnalyzeWidest eye, smallest folder on the map.
A treemap of your whole disk. Drill down into any branch, see size at every level. Right-click to trash or reveal in Finder, without leaving the map.
StatusEvery heartbeat, in its light.
CPU, memory, GPU, disk, network, battery, thermals, uptime, and top processes on one bento grid. Each metric carries a sixty-second sparkline. Sort, pin, and watch in real time.
02 · How it behaves
Conservative by default
Mac cleaners earned a bad reputation by being noisy and aggressive. Mole takes the opposite stance. The defaults assume you want things kept, not removed.
1Nothing leaves your Mac.No analytics, no telemetry. Files stay local. The only outbound calls are license validation and the update check.
2Show before you remove.Every action shows the file list and byte count first. You confirm; Mole acts. Uninstalls go through the system Trash so a wrong tap is recoverable; caches are removed permanently so the freed bytes are real.
3Refuse when unsure.System paths and anything outside known cache locations are denied. The app would rather skip a file than risk one.
4One binary, no upsell.Five tools, all unlocked by one license. No Pro tier, no scareware.
03 · Price
One purchase, no subscription
$9
Most Mac cleaners cost $30 to $50 a year. Mole is $9, once.
Lifetime updates ·
2 Macs per license ·
14-day refund ·
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat, Cash App
04 · Questions
Honest answers
What can I try for free?
Download and scan for free to see what Mole would clean and how much space you would get back. The Mole CLI is open source, MIT-licensed, and free forever. The Mac app adds a visual disk treemap, live system dashboard, one-click workflows, and the planet design system. Cleaning, uninstalling, and optimizing in the Mac app require a license.
How does Mole compare to CleanMyMac?
Mole is open. The CLI underneath is MIT-licensed and maintained by 100+ contributors worldwide, with 500+ user-suggested fixes and 300+ merged community PRs. The Mac app builds on that same engine. You can audit every line, file an issue, or ship a fix yourself, and the roadmap is shaped by people who actually use it.
Does it work without Full Disk Access?
Yes. Mole runs a safe scan by default. Granting Full Disk Access lets it reach deeper caches inside App Support and app containers, typically an extra 2-5 GB. You can grant or skip it at any time in Settings.
Does Mole upload anything?
No. File scans run locally. The only outbound traffic is the license check and the automatic update check.
What does Mole see when I check out?
Only your email (for the license key) and your name (for receipts). Your billing address is handled by Dodo Payments, our merchant of record, for tax compliance and card verification. WeChat payments skip address verification entirely.
License trouble?
Check your spam or promotions folder for the Dodo Payments email. When pasting the key, make sure there are no extra spaces or line breaks at the start or end. Still stuck? Contact us via the help page with your Transaction ID.
Switching Macs, invoices, refunds, or anything else? Visit the help page.
When you purchase Mole, you receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual license to use the software on up to two Macs at the same time. You may deactivate a device at any time from within the app and reactivate on a different Mac.
2. Restrictions
You may not redistribute, sublicense, reverse-engineer, or modify the software. You may not use the same license key beyond the activation cap.
3. Intellectual Property
Mole, its trademarks, logos, and content are the property of Tw93. The software is protected by copyright law.
4. Disclaimer
The software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Always confirm what will be removed before cleaning.
5. Limitation of Liability
In no event shall Tw93 be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use of Mole. Total liability shall not exceed the amount paid for the license.
6. Contact
For questions about these terms, contact hi@mole.fit.
When you activate a license, Mole sends the license key, a short device label (derived from your Mac's hostname and a hashed hardware fingerprint), and nothing else. These are sent to Dodo Payments over HTTPS for activation and validation.
2. What we do not collect
Mole does not collect, transmit, or upload file contents, file names, browsing history, documents, passwords, or any data scanned during cleaning. All scanning and cleaning happen locally on your device. Mole keeps a local operation log on your Mac for your reference; this log never leaves your device.
3. Third-party services
Dodo Payments is the merchant of record for Mole. It handles checkout, billing, license key delivery, refunds, and invoices. During checkout, Dodo collects your name, email, and billing address under its own privacy policy. Software updates are fetched from https://mole.fit/appcast.xml over HTTPS via Sparkle.
4. Data storage
The license key is stored in the macOS Keychain on your device. We do not maintain a user database beyond what Dodo Payments keeps for transaction records.
5. Your rights
You can deactivate the license at any time from within the app. You may also request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal data we hold by emailing hi@mole.fit. We will respond within 30 days. If you are in the EU/EEA, you have additional rights under the GDPR, including data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
A short walkthrough · buy, activate, and ask for help.
1. Download and try
Click Download and try. Drag Mole into Applications and launch it. Scanning is always free, so you can see exactly what Mole would clean before paying.
2. Buy a license
From the homepage, click Buy Mole now. You will land on the secure Dodo Payments checkout page.
Fill in Contact Information: your name, email (where the license key will be sent), and phone.
Fill in Billing Address: country, city, region, postal code.
Click Continue to Payment.
Pick a payment method: Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat, or Cash App.
Confirm payment. The license key arrives in your inbox within seconds.
Step 1: contact info and billing address. The license key is emailed to the address you enter here.Step 2: pick a payment method (Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat, Cash App).
3. Activate Mole
Open the email from Dodo Payments and copy the license key.
Open Mole. Press Cmd + Shift + L (or open the Mole menu in macOS's menu bar and choose License…).
Paste the key and click Activate. Mole removes accidental spaces and line breaks automatically.
You will see All tools unlocked. That is it.
Press ⌘⇧L inside Mole, paste the key from your purchase email, then click Activate. Extra spaces and line breaks are cleaned automatically.
4. Switch to a new Mac
Each license works on up to 2 Macs at the same time. To move it: open Mole on the old machine, press Cmd + Shift + L, click Deactivate this device. Then activate on the new machine with the same key.
5. Refund and invoices
If Mole is not what you wanted, email hi@mole.fit within 14 days with your order number. No questions asked. See the Refund Policy for full terms.
Dodo Payments generates a receipt automatically after each purchase. For a formal invoice (with a company name or VAT info), email hi@mole.fit within 30 days of purchase.
6. Settings and shortcuts
Press Cmd + , to open Settings. Three toggles live here:
Planet Landing controls the planet intro animation when you switch tabs. Turn it off to jump straight to each tool.
Language lets you pick English, Chinese, French, or German. The change takes effect on next launch.
License shows your activation status. Click to activate, deactivate, or switch devices.
Keyboard shortcuts:
Cmd + , open Settings
Cmd + Shift + L open License panel
Esc close any overlay (Settings, License, Doctor, review panels)
7. Run Doctor inside Mole
From the menu bar pick Help → Run Doctor…. Mole gathers a short report covering your Mac, permissions, recent operations, and environment. Click Copy Report to share it in chat, or Open GitHub Issue to land in a bug form with everything pre-filled.
Full Disk Access is missing
Mole needs Full Disk Access to scan caches under ~/Library and system locations. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, enable Mole, and relaunch the app. Mole only reads from these locations; it never sends file contents anywhere.
Memory pressure is high
macOS reports elevated memory pressure when active memory plus compressed memory crowd out the cache. Close unused apps (especially browsers with many tabs and large Electron tools). Mole's Status tab lists the top processes by CPU and memory if you want to see who is using the most.
Disk is almost full
Once your startup disk crosses 90% used, macOS starts swapping and slowing down. Open the Clean tab to recover caches, logs, and trash. For one-off large folders, the Analyze tab visualises space by directory so you can spot the heavy hitters.
Mole's operations log can't be written
Mole writes a per-operation log at ~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log. If the disk is full or that directory is unwritable, the log fails silently. Free up some space, then quit and reopen Mole; the doctor report will turn green on the next run.
Recent operations failed
A failure usually means one path inside a clean or uninstall batch was protected by macOS, blocked by another app, or already gone by the time Mole reached it. Open the tab where the failure happened (Clean, Uninstall, Optimize) and inspect the details overlay; each failed row carries a reason.
8. Report a problem
Before filing anything, check open issues first; someone may have hit the same thing.
Mac app bug or crash
Run Doctor first (section 6 above). Click Open GitHub Issue in the Doctor overlay to land in a bug form with your system report pre-filled. If you prefer to file manually, copy the report and paste it into the form.
Mac app feature idea
Open the feature request form. Describe the problem the feature would solve, not just the feature itself.
CLI bug or suggestion
The Mole CLI is a separate open-source project. File CLI-specific issues in the CLI issue tracker. Include your macOS version and mo version output.
License, payment, refund, or private details
Email hi@mole.fit with your registered email and Transaction ID (e.g. pay_0Neg1VuBqdqY4EdqawdOtvP).
Mole is two interfaces sharing one cleaning engine. The CLI is free, open source, and MIT-licensed. The Mac app is a native SwiftUI companion for $9 lifetime. Five tools are shared between them; the CLI adds a few terminal-only commands.
Mac App
Clean (Earth)
Scans eleven categories: app caches, browser temp files, developer tools (Xcode, npm, pip), AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot), communication apps (Discord, Slack), cloud storage, design tools (Adobe, Figma cache), system logs, miscellaneous temp files, and .DS_Store. The Trash is listed separately at the end.
The review list is sorted by deletion impact: regenerable caches appear first, user-visible state last, Trash always at the bottom. Hardlink-aware sizing means files shared across tools (uv, pnpm) are not double-counted. Default deletion is permanent so the freed bytes match the headline. One toggle in Settings routes everything through the system Trash instead.
Uninstall (Mars)
Pick apps to remove. Mole finds leftover files in fifteen-plus Library subdirectories: Application Support, Caches, Preferences, Logs, Launch Agents, Launch Daemons, Login Items, Containers, Group Containers, Saved Application State, and more. Dock entries (persistent apps, persistent others, recent apps) are cleaned automatically.
Root-owned apps ask for your password once per session; subsequent removals run silently. About fifty system-critical bundles are hidden so they cannot be selected. Vendor security and antivirus apps show a link to the vendor's own uninstaller instead. Anything that looks like personal data gets a warning before deletion.
Optimize (Mercury)
Twenty-two safe maintenance tasks, executed with one tap. Non-admin tasks run silently. Admin tasks prompt once and then run in batch.
Tasks include: rebuild Quick Look, Spotlight, font cache, and Launch Services; vacuum SQLite stores; flush DNS; prune notification history; repair broken preference files; clean quarantine database; prevent .DS_Store on network volumes; remove broken Launch Agents and shared file lists.
Safety gates skip tasks when conditions are unsafe: Bluetooth reset is skipped when external audio devices are connected, font cache rebuild is skipped when browsers are open, Spotlight reindex is skipped on battery power, and network stack flush is skipped when a VPN is active.
Analyze (Jupiter)
A treemap visualization of your entire disk. Drill down into any directory to see size at every level. Right-click any entry to move it to the Trash or reveal it in Finder, without leaving the map view.
Entries that could not be sized (permission-restricted folders, TCC-gated containers) are surfaced with a retry option instead of being silently dropped. Protected navigational roots (/, /Users, /Applications) cannot be trashed. Disk scan results are cached for 24 hours for fast re-entry.
Status (Sun)
Nine metrics on one bento grid, each with a sixty-second sparkline: CPU, memory, GPU, disk I/O, network throughput, battery status, thermal state, uptime, and a health score (0-100).
The process list below the grid updates every second. Click any column header (Name, CPU, Memory) to sort. Click a row to pin it; pinned processes stay at the top across refreshes so you can watch a specific app without losing it in the scroll.
Doctor
From the menu bar: Help → Run Doctor…. Mole gathers a short diagnostic report covering your Mac model, macOS version, permissions, recent operations, and environment. Click Copy Report to paste it into a chat, or Open GitHub Issue to land in a bug form with the report pre-filled.
Doctor detects five conditions: missing Full Disk Access, elevated memory pressure, disk usage above 90%, unwritable operations log, and recent operation failures. Each condition links to a help article with resolution steps. See the Help page for details on each.
Settings
Planet Landing: toggle the animated planet intro on each tab. When off, tabs open directly to their tool. Delete mode: choose between permanent deletion (default for caches) and Trash routing. Full Disk Access: a shortcut to open System Settings. License activation: press Cmd + Shift + L or use the Mole menu.
CLI
Installation
Via Homebrew: brew install mole. Via script: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash. Run mo for the interactive menu, or any subcommand directly.
Shared commands (also in the Mac app)
mo clean
Deep cleanup across the same eleven categories as the Mac app. Supports --dry-run to preview without deleting, --debug for detailed logs, and --whitelist to manage protected caches. Skips caches of running apps automatically.
mo uninstall
Interactive app selection with remnant detection. Shows app size, bundle ID, and last-used date. Finds the same fifteen-plus leftover categories as the Mac app. Supports --dry-run.
mo optimize
Runs the same twenty-two maintenance tasks. Admin tasks prompt for your password. Supports --whitelist to exclude specific tasks from future runs.
mo analyze
Interactive treemap in the terminal. Navigate with arrow keys or Vim bindings (h/j/k/l). Trash files directly from the map. Supports --json output and custom paths like mo analyze /Volumes for external drives.
mo status
Live system dashboard: CPU, GPU, memory, disk I/O, network, battery, thermals, uptime, health score, and top processes with sixty-second sparklines. Supports --json for piping to other tools.
CLI-only commands
mo purge
Finds old build artifacts across project directories: node_modules, target, .build, build, dist, venv. Scans configurable paths (default: ~/Projects, ~/GitHub, ~/dev). Projects younger than 7 days are marked "Recent" and unselected by default. Supports --dry-run and --paths to configure scan directories.
mo installer
Discovers .dmg, .pkg, and .zip installer files in Downloads, Desktop, Homebrew cache, iCloud, and Mail attachments. Labels each file by source location. Supports --dry-run.
mo touchid
Enables Touch ID for sudo commands. Run mo touchid enable to configure, mo touchid disable to revert. Supports --dry-run.
Utility commands
mo completion
Sets up shell tab completion for Bash and Zsh. Auto-detects your shell and updates the appropriate config file.
mo update
Self-update to the latest stable release. Use --nightly for the latest unreleased build from main (script installs only). Use --force to reinstall the current version.
mo remove
Uninstalls Mole CLI from your system, including config files and shell integration. Supports --dry-run.
Safety
Both the CLI and Mac app share the same safety principles:
Path protection. A built-in deny list covers system-critical directories, your home folder's essential structure, and anything outside known cache locations. Symlinks are resolved and validated before any operation.
Process awareness. Caches belonging to running apps are skipped during cleanup. Browser caches are not touched while the browser is open.
License gate. In the Mac app, all destructive operations (clean, uninstall, optimize, trash from Analyze) require an active license. Scanning is always free.
Whitelist. Both the CLI (~/.config/mole/whitelist) and Mac app let you protect specific caches or optimization tasks from future runs.
Operations log. Every deletion is recorded at ~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log. The Mac app's Doctor overlay checks the health of this log and surfaces any recent failures.
Preview first. The CLI supports --dry-run on every destructive command. The Mac app shows the full file list and byte count before any action.
Troubleshooting
The Mac app includes a built-in Doctor that detects common issues. Open it from Help → Run Doctor… in the menu bar. For specific conditions, see the Help page.
For the CLI, add --debug to any command for detailed logs. Review the operations log at ~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log for recent activity. If a command fails silently, check whether Full Disk Access is granted in System Settings.
To report issues, see the Report a problem section on the Help page.
Cleanup safety: reclaimed space is now measured from the filesystem with hardlink-aware exclusive sizing. Sensitive remnants (keychains, credentials) trigger a warning before deletion. Root-owned apps go through the recoverable Trash path.
Uninstall: iOS wrapper apps and bilingual apps are now detected and removable. Dock ghosts, login items, and launch agents are cleaned in one pass with a single admin prompt.
Clean review: results sorted by deletion impact (regenerable caches first, user-visible state last). Completion screen shows cumulative lifetime cleanup stats.
Status: click any column header to sort the process list; click a row to pin it so it stays visible across refreshes.
Analyze: narrow treemap cells now rotate labels vertically so directory names stay readable.
Doctor: built-in diagnostic report from the Help menu covering permissions, system pressure, disk space, and operations logs.
Languages: French and German across the Mac app and website, with localized screenshots.
1.2.0 May 11, 2026
No more keychain password prompts on launch or passive license reads.
No more TCC dialogs when scanning without Full Disk Access.
Overlay panels no longer flash white on first render.
ESC key now reliably dismisses all overlays and cancels running operations.
Status dashboard uses less CPU.
Refined planet colors and accent palette.
1.1.0 May 11, 2026
System cache cleanup with admin privileges (1-3 GB typical).
Uninstall now auto-quits running apps, cleans Dock and login items.
All 22 optimize tasks run (admin tasks via one-time auth).
50+ new app cache targets (Steam, Notion, IINA, Raycast, and more).
Homebrew cask --zap for thorough removal.
Root-owned app uninstall via Finder.
1.0.0 May 6, 2026
Five tools in one app: Clean, Uninstall, Optimize, Analyze, Status.
One-time license, $9 lifetime, 14-day refund.
Built-in license activation, two devices per key.
Conservative safety defaults: protected paths, full review before any cleanup, Trash by default for app uninstalls.
