Free Disk Space (macOS)

Audit the disk, clear what's safely regenerable, and confirm before touching anything that isn't.

Ground rules

• Use trash (if the CLI is available) instead of rm -rf. Accumulate in Trash; ask the user to empty it once at the end.
• Prefer a tool's own cleanup command over deleting its directories (go clean -cache, brew cleanup --prune=all, pnpm store prune, npm cache clean --force, cargo clean).
• Measure with df -h /System/Volumes/Data (not plain df /).
• Do not clear GUI app data. ~/Library/Caches/<App> and ~/Library/Application Support/<App> often hold logins, cookies, and history. Leave them alone unless the user names a specific app and accepts the risk. Prefer build cleanup, package-manager prune, stale worktrees, and external-drive offload instead.

Workflow

1. Assess

df -h /System/Volumes/Data; ls /Volumes. Note free space and whether an external drive is mounted.

2. Survey

Targeted du -sh ... | sort -hr — not a full scan of ~. Usual big ones:

• Build artifacts: target/ (every worktree too), node_modules/, Xcode DerivedData
• Package-manager caches: go-build, Homebrew, pnpm/npm/pip stores — clean via CLI
• Large media: CapCut, Screen Studio, Movies, Downloads
• Report app caches / Application Support sizes only; don't auto-delete them

3. Clear safe tier without asking

Build artifacts and package-manager / language-tool caches only. Everything else (app data, media, model weights, toolchains): summarize sizes and ask, or propose offload.

4. Audit git worktrees

For each worktree: dirty? unique/unpushed commits? Clean + fully merged/pushed → git worktree remove and git branch -d (never -D). Keep and report anything dirty or ahead.

5. Offload keepers

rsync -a → verify sizes → trash original → symlink old path. Symlink individual folders, not whole special dirs like ~/Movies. Warn the app needs the drive mounted.

6. Wrap up

What freed immediately, what's in Trash, what you left alone. Ask user to empty Trash and re-check df.