How to uninstall Beav on Mac

Beav, formerly RedBox, is a local-first assistant for running Xiaohongshu and other social media accounts, built on Tauri, from beav.pro and its GitHub project. It keeps your manuscripts, account memory and spaces in ~/.beav, so copy that folder before you remove anything. On first launch it also registers a browser-control helper with Chrome-family browsers by writing a small file named com.redbox.browser_control.json into each browser's NativeMessagingHosts folder, and records that install in ~/Library/Application Support/RedBox. This guide covers the Apple silicon download; no Homebrew cask for it was found.

Quit and remove the app

  1. Copy ~/.beav somewhere if you want your manuscripts, memory and spaces back later.
  2. Quit Beav from its menu or press Command + Q. In the test it ran 10 processes, which Mole's Status page groups into one Beav row.
  3. Open Finder, go to Applications and drag Beav to the Trash.
  4. If you installed Beav's Chrome or Edge extension from its GitHub release, remove it on the browser's extensions page (chrome://extensions or edge://extensions).
  5. If you connected Beav to another AI tool through its agent integration, remove the Beav entry from that tool's MCP settings. The test did not connect one, and Codex, Claude Desktop and Cursor had no Beav entry afterwards.

The app registered no login item or launch agent in the test.

Where the data lives

Press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each path. Skip any path that is not on your Mac.

Location What it holds What to do
~/.beav Manuscripts, account memory and spaces Copy what you need first, then remove. Mole lists it for review and does not select it.
~/Library/Application Support/RedBox The browser-control helper's install record in native-host/browser-control-native-host-install.json; if you used RedBox before the rename, look inside for older data first Remove. Mole lists it for review and does not select it.
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/com.redbox.browser_control.json Chrome's registration of Beav's helper; the same file can sit in Google/Chrome Beta, Google/Chrome Canary and Chromium Remove. Selected by default.

Remove only com.redbox.browser_control.json from a NativeMessagingHosts folder; the folder and other files in it belong to the browser and other apps.

Check the result

pgrep -il beav
ls -ld "$HOME/.beav" "$HOME/Library/Application Support/RedBox"
find "$HOME/Library/Application Support" -maxdepth 4 -name com.redbox.browser_control.json
  • No output from pgrep means no Beav process is running. A printed line may also be an unrelated process with beav in its name, so read it before you quit it.
  • A path printed by ls still exists. A surviving ~/.beav is expected if you kept your work. No such file or directory means the path is gone.
  • No output from find means no browser still registers Beav's helper. Each printed path is a registration file left in that browser's folder.

Account

Removing the app does not delete your Beav account or anything stored with it online. Handle that in your account.

What Mole lists

Mole selects the app, the rows it ties to Beav by its bundle ID and every com.redbox.browser_control.json whose helper path points into Beav.app. It lists ~/.beav for review without selecting it. It lists ~/Library/Application Support/RedBox for review without selecting it, and only while the install record inside names a helper in Beav.app; RedBox is a generic name, so a folder of that name without that record is not offered.

These defaults assume “Remove data and settings with apps” in General › Cleaning is off. With it on, Mole also ticks ~/.beav and the RedBox folder, so untick ~/.beav if you keep your work.

What this test covered

On October 20, 2026, the test downloaded Beav 2.9.5 for Apple silicon from its GitHub release, copied it to Applications and opened it without signing in. On first launch it wrote com.redbox.browser_control.json for Chrome, Chrome Beta, Chrome Canary and Chromium; its writes for Edge and Brave failed. The test removed it with a source-built Mole with the review rows ticked. Mole moved the four registration files, nine other rows and the app to the Trash. ~/.beav and ~/Library/Application Support/RedBox were left; Mole now lists both for review. An empty NativeMessagingHosts folder under Chromium stayed, since it belongs to the browser's folder. Status showed one Beav row with 10 processes. Beav carries its own Tauri updater, which Mole's update page does not read, and no update was run. A signed-in account, the browser extension, an agent connection and Mole's notarized release build were not tested.