How to uninstall Cork on Mac
Cork is a native Mac front end for Homebrew by David Bures, from corkmac.app and its GitHub project. It only drives Homebrew, so removing Cork does not remove Homebrew, your formulae or your casks, and none of them are in the steps below. What Cork keeps itself is small: its source stores your package tags (a Cork-only feature in its README) and its list of excluded apps in a local store, and older versions wrote a metadata folder, ~/Documents/Cork, which Cork deletes itself on launch. The license is a one-time purchase on the site, so there is no subscription to cancel. This guide covers the official zip and the Homebrew cask cork.
Quit and remove the app
- Quit Cork with Command + Q. Its README says it can update packages from the menu bar without the main window open, so quit it from the menu bar icon too if you see one. In the test, Status grouped three processes under one row: Cork and two copies of macOS's Metal shader compiler.
- Open Finder, go to Applications and drag Cork to the Trash.
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 |
|---|---|---|
Homebrew itself: /opt/homebrew on Apple silicon or /usr/local on Intel, and ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew |
Homebrew and its downloads; Cork only reads and drives them | Keep. They belong to Homebrew, not Cork. |
~/Library/Preferences/eu.davidbures.cork.plist |
Preferences | Remove after quitting Cork. Mole selects it by default. |
~/Library/Caches/eu.davidbures.cork |
Cache | Remove. Mole selects it by default. |
~/Library/HTTPStorages/eu.davidbures.cork |
Network storage | Remove. Mole selects it by default. |
The eu.davidbures.cork folder inside the folder that getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR prints |
Mole's temporary cache row, 139 KB in the test | Remove. Mole selects it by default. |
~/Library/Application Support/Cork |
Named in the cask's zap list; not present in the test, so what it holds was not seen. Cork's source keeps package tags locally, so look inside first if you use tags. | Remove only if you do not need your tags. |
~/Documents/Cork |
The old metadata folder from earlier versions; the current Cork deletes it on launch | Remove if it exists. |
Check the result
pgrep -il cork
ls -d /Applications/Cork.app ~/Library/Preferences/eu.davidbures.cork.plist ~/Library/Caches/eu.davidbures.cork ~/Library/HTTPStorages/eu.davidbures.cork ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cork ~/Documents/Cork
brew --version
- No output from
pgrepmeans Cork is not running. A printed line is a process still alive; quit it before deleting its preferences, because a running app writes its preferences file back. - For
ls -d, "No such file or directory" means that path is gone. A printed path is still on disk. - The last command should still print a Homebrew version. If it does, Homebrew is intact, which is what you want; Cork's removal never touches it.
If you installed it with Homebrew
brew uninstall --cask cork
The cask quits Cork on an ordinary uninstall and removes the app only. Its zap list names ~/Documents/Cork, ~/Library/Application Support/Cork, the caches, network storage and preferences under both eu.davidbures.cork and the older com.davidbures.cork, and saved state. It does not touch Homebrew itself. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap cork yourself deletes all of that, your package tags in ~/Library/Application Support/Cork included if that is where they are, and does not read Mole's checkboxes. ~/Documents/Cork is outside ~/Library, so Mole never runs this cask's zap and removes the rows you selected itself. The Homebrew install was not tested.
What Mole lists
Mole selects the app, ~/Library/Preferences/eu.davidbures.cork.plist, ~/Library/Caches/eu.davidbures.cork, ~/Library/HTTPStorages/eu.davidbures.cork and the temporary cache row. It does not touch Homebrew, its Cellar or its cache, and it does not list ~/Documents/Cork or ~/Library/Application Support/Cork when they do not exist.
What this test covered
On November 9, 2026, the test downloaded Cork 2.1.2 (a Universal zip) from the project's site, whose checksum matched the Homebrew cask, copied the app to Applications without running brew install and opened it once. It then quit the app and removed it with a source-built Mole with every review row ticked. Mole moved the app and four rows to the Trash, and when the preferences file reappeared after the first move, Mole moved it again. Status showed one Cork row with 3 processes. Mole found no update feed for the app, and no update was run. What was left is a macOS-owned shortcut database under ~/Library/Biome, which is system data that Mole does not collect. Using Cork with Homebrew packages, tagging, the license, a Homebrew-managed uninstall and Mole's notarized release build were not tested.