How to Uninstall Kaleidoscope on Mac

Save comparisons or files you created outside Kaleidoscope before removing the app. If you use its ksdiff command in scripts or Git, note where that integration was installed so you can remove only the owned link later. Kaleidoscope Prism is a separate menu bar component that can continue running after the main window closes. The recorded test used the official download.

Remove the app and review its data

Quit both Kaleidoscope and Prism from their menus, then move Kaleidoscope.app from Applications to Trash. In System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions, check any Kaleidoscope entry and turn it off if it remains. If you installed ksdiff, inspect the Integration window before uninstalling or check the resolved link afterward. Do not delete an unrelated executable with the same name. Inspect ~/Library/Application Support/Kaleidoscope and the exact app.kaleidoscope.v4 data only if present; keep custom settings you still need. Avoid deleting older com.blackpixel.kaleidoscope data simply because a newer cask includes it.

Kaleidoscope: Prism · Kaleidoscope: ksdiff

Check the result

These commands read the current state without removing anything:

pgrep -il Kaleidoscope
pgrep -il Prism
command -v ksdiff

No pgrep result means no matching process is running; a listed process should be identified and quit before removing data. command -v, where shown, checks only the current shell's PATH: no result does not prove every installed copy is gone, and a result needs its target checked. Do not treat a surviving remote file, project or deliberately retained preference as an uninstall failure.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The Kaleidoscope cask includes Prism and share-extension containers, older app identifiers, support folders and a ksdiff integration step. Its manual --zap can touch those historical paths regardless of Mole selections. Use brew uninstall --cask kaleidoscope when you want to inspect them first. Mole skips --zap for unchecked, shared, out-of-boundary or unverifiable entries and treats selected remnants separately.

brew uninstall --cask kaleidoscope

Removing the application does not cancel a purchase or delete a remote account.

What Mole lists

Exact app-ID support, caches and preferences can be selected by default. A display-name support folder is a review row and is not selected by default. An embedded Prism login item is for confirmation, not a license to remove another container or edit macOS background-task databases.

What this test covered

Kaleidoscope 7.0.1 from its official package was removed on September 20, 2026, with review items selected. A Prism Container of about 32 KB remained after a macOS Trash permission error. The Prism login item was observed before removal and pruned afterward. No separate ksdiff integration removal or Homebrew uninstall was verified.