Uninstall GitHub Desktop on Mac
Removing GitHub Desktop does not touch your repositories: cloned projects live wherever you put them on disk, independent of the app, and GitHub Desktop only deletes a repository's local folder when you explicitly choose that option while removing it from the app's list. Push any pending commits first, since the app itself is the thing going away, not your work. These steps cover the official download and the Homebrew cask github, which install the same app.
Check your repositories and sign-in state
Open GitHub Desktop, push or note any unpushed commits in repositories you care about, and confirm which account you are signed in to. Your local clones are ordinary folders on disk; removing the app changes nothing about them.
Quit GitHub Desktop and remove the app
Quit GitHub Desktop from its app menu. Open Finder, go to the Applications folder, right-click GitHub Desktop and choose Move to Trash, then empty the Trash. This matches GitHub's own uninstall procedure, which is exactly Trash plus Empty Trash: nothing else is documented as required.
Where GitHub Desktop keeps its files
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
~/Library/Application Support/com.github.GitHubClient, ~/Library/Application Support/GitHub Desktop |
App data and settings | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Application Support/com.github.GitHubClient.ShipIt, ~/Library/Caches/com.github.GitHubClient.ShipIt |
Update helper state | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Application Support/ShipIt_stderr.log, ~/Library/Application Support/ShipIt_stdout.log |
Updater log files, sitting directly in Application Support rather than a per-app subfolder | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Caches/com.github.GitHubClient |
Regenerable cache | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Preferences/com.github.GitHubClient.plist, ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.GitHubClient.helper.plist |
App preferences | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.github.GitHubClient.savedState |
Saved window state | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Logs/GitHub Desktop |
App logs | Safe to remove |
Your sign-in token is stored in the macOS Keychain, not in any of the files above; Mole never reads or removes anything from Keychains, and removing the app does not sign you out of GitHub anywhere else. ~/.config/git is not GitHub Desktop's: the app only removes it if it is completely empty, because other Git installations and tools share it, so leave it alone even if you see it referenced in the app's uninstall data.
Check the result
Run these read-only commands in Terminal:
pgrep -il "github desktop"
launchctl list | grep -i com.github.GitHubClient
command -v github
No output from pgrep means GitHub Desktop has quit. No output from launchctl list means no GitHub Desktop job is currently loaded in your session; a listed ShipIt entry with no matching file is a harmless leftover record, not a running process. command -v github checks for the github command line helper described below; no output means it is not on your PATH.
The github command line helper
The Homebrew cask exposes GitHub Desktop's built-in github.sh script as a github command on your PATH. This is a convenience script bundled with the app, separate from GitHub's own gh command line tool. Homebrew removes it automatically when you uninstall the cask. If you installed from the official download, this command was never on your PATH unless you linked it yourself; there is nothing extra to clean up either way.
Removing individual repositories
To stop tracking a repository without touching its files, select it in GitHub Desktop's repository list and use File › Remove. GitHub Desktop offers a separate option to also delete the local folder from disk, off by default; only the explicit choice to delete removes anything, so simply uninstalling the app afterward, or removing a repository from the list, leaves your cloned files exactly where they are. Uninstalling GitHub Desktop
If you installed it with Homebrew
The next Mole update will skip --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked. Mole will still clean the leftovers you selected. Preview 290 does not include this protection.
The github cask has no uninstall quit: stanza, so brew uninstall --cask does not quit GitHub Desktop for you; quit it first. Mole Preview 290 removes a Homebrew-installed GitHub Desktop with brew uninstall --cask --zap github, and the zap list covers every path in the table above (both Application Support folders, the ShipIt helper and its two log files, caches, preferences, and saved window state), removed whatever you select in Mole. It does not include ~/.config/git, which the cask only ever removes if it is already empty. Skip zap to keep everything but the app itself:
brew uninstall --cask github
What Mole lists
This describes Mole 1.15 (currently in Preview):
~/Library/Application Support/com.github.GitHubClient, the ShipIt helper folders, caches, preferences, and saved window state are listed and selected by default (Mole treats them as this app's own data).~/Library/Application Support/GitHub Desktopis listed too, but not selected by default: Mole treats an app's exact-name Application Support folder as user data and leaves it for you to review yourself.- Your repositories, wherever you cloned them, are never listed: Mole's uninstall scan only reaches app-owned Library locations, not arbitrary project folders.
- Your Keychain sign-in token is never listed or touched;
Library/Keychainsis protected in Mole regardless of app.
What this test covered
GitHub Desktop was installed from Homebrew and removed with a development build of Mole on September 17, 2026, as part of an 8-app cluster. GitHub Desktop's own row showed its ShipIt helper, preferences, and shared-file-list records all removed with no new leaf types found. This test did not exercise the delete-from-disk option for a repository, signed-in credential removal, or the github command line helper; the official direct download was not uninstalled in this test.