blitzclean

Overview

• Overview shows only what is wrong, one card per problem, worst first, each with one button that fixes it: Free 32 GB (old iOS simulators, caches and Trash after one confirmation), Close idle apps, See agents, Pause, Revive. When nothing is wrong it says so.
• While deleting, the disk card shows each step, the space freed so far and the free space now. Caches read "Free up to", since items apps have open or used recently are kept.
• Every removal and stop reports what it measured afterwards, such as "Free disk space went from 12 GB to 26 GB", instead of the size it expected to free.
• The delete review is a floating card with a table of what goes, a note on what stays and a red confirm button.

Revive apps

• Frozen apps are detected without Accessibility permission, from the same flag the Force Quit window uses.
• The list shows regular apps plus any app that is paused or not responding, never a BlitzClean copy, and offers Force Quit only on rows with a problem.

Projects

• Projects groups running work by Git repository: each worktree shows its branch, uncommitted and unpushed changes, the agents working in it (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor), its programs such as node ×4, its ports and its memory, with Stop and agent Pause or Quit. Idle worktrees are listed by branch under their repository.
• An agent card counts every agent session, the memory they hold and how many more fit before macOS starts moving memory to disk. A notification warns when a new session starts with no room left.

Storage

• Delete old iOS simulators now removes every installed copy of that version, waits for the simulator service to finish, and reports a version macOS kept instead of claiming success. A deletion started during a scan stops the scan instead of being ignored.

Design

• One neutral icon style replaces the colored squares in the sidebar, page headers, Overview and the tray. Charts are drawn in one ink and only turn amber or red when a reading needs attention.
• The drive bar uses muted colors of similar lightness, with a matching dot beside each group.

Reliability

• Commands that fail, time out or print something unexpected now say "Couldn't read …" with the reason instead of looking empty, and nothing is stopped or deleted on a reading that could not be checked.
• Background readers share one schedule that slows down while another app is in front and under memory pressure, so BlitzClean adds no load to a Mac that is already swapping.
• Fix a hang when many commands ran at once.
• Git runs with fsmonitor, hooks, the untracked cache and the repository's own clean and smudge filters turned off, so a cloned repository's config can't make BlitzClean run a command while it reads branches and changes. Filters from your global config, such as Git LFS, keep working. Filters are read from the worktree's own config too, status never descends into submodules, and a worktree with submodules is left for you to review.

BlitzClean Dev

• While the released app runs, the dev build's menu bar item shrinks to its mark and a DEV tag, so the two never show the same readings side by side.

Storage

• Open Storage on Drive: the whole disk grouped into units such as Projects, iOS simulators, App data and Caches, each with one action or a stated reason it stays. Browse and Cleanup sit beside it.
• Cleanup lists old downloads and screenshots, and large personal files, with Move to Trash and Undo.
• Drive, Browse, Largest files and Cleanup share one disk walker: sizes stay on their volume, hard-linked files such as pnpm stores count once everywhere, and folders with unreadable entries show a partial size.
• The unused full inventory scan, with its du and Spotlight passes, no longer runs.
• Protected locations (home, standard folders, system and volume roots, Git history) say why they stay.

Memory and projects

• Emergency controls open with Control–Option–Command–R in a separate process, even while the dashboard is busy.
• Stop project dev servers together with their Docker containers; database volumes are kept, and each container gets 120 seconds to shut down.
• Fix a crash on the Memory page when two AI sessions shared an identifier.

Safety

• Every removal passes one final check: plain absolute path, no linked parent, not a protected root, writable volume, and the same file that was reviewed.
• Every signal to a process checks the same PID, start time, executable and owner; Storage's Stop processes now does too, so a reused PID is never stopped.
• Commands run with a deadline and an output limit, and stop the processes they started on timeout.
• Unreadable Keep running settings now block stopping and removal instead of turning protection off.
• Emergency controls clear the selection when the selected workload exits, so Stop never acts on another row.

Reliability

• Cleanup history that cannot be read is moved aside and new removals keep being recorded.
• Agent cleanup reports skip only malformed entries and accept decimal or string numbers.
• Browse resumes measuring after a removal; a stopped first Drive scan is not kept as a result; trashed large files no longer return when a scan finishes; Stop and Remove again refresh correctly.
• Recognise Claude Code installed under Application Support, and find session titles for accented folders.
• Docker projects with more than 256 containers work.
• Folder size caches are saved off the main thread.

Build

• Developer ID signed (54LJ85K2P7), notarized, stapled; Gatekeeper: accepted.
• Universal (arm64, x86_64), macOS 14+.

BlitzClean 1.4.0 adds leftover-process controls, fixes built-in apps missing from Revive apps, and tightens cleanup safety.

• Revive apps: Mail, Terminal, and Safari now appear when running. Safe resume uses separate rules from Quit and Force Quit, with existing protections retained. A successful single Revive also activates the selected app.
• Leftover processes: Projects lists processes that kept running after their parent exited, with RAM, CPU, folder, PID, and uptime. Single Quit runs directly; Force Quit and Quit all ask first. Process identity stays attached to the original selection through refreshes and confirmations.
• Cleanup safety: Docker operations stay pinned to a local Unix socket and preserve tagged images. Repeat folder removal rechecks activity, age, tracked files, links, and tree identity. Known Time Machine warnings no longer block valid cleanup; other activity errors still preserve files.
• Local probes: HTTP probes, redirects, and favicons stay on literal IPv4 or IPv6 loopback addresses.
• Dock and menu bar: Closing the dashboard removes its Dock and app-switcher entry while monitoring stays in the menu bar. Opening the dashboard restores the Dock entry.

Thanks to jpc0rrea for the cleanup safeguards and scr2em for the leftover-process contribution adapted from OrphanBar. Its MIT notice is included in the app.

Download the ZIP and move BlitzClean.app to Applications. macOS 14 or later; Apple silicon and Intel. The app is Developer ID signed, Apple notarized, and stapled. The matching SHA-256 file verifies the ZIP. Existing 1.3.0 installs can update using the same Sparkle signing key.

Validation: 335 tests, strict lint, build, plist, shell, signature, Gatekeeper, architecture, and update-signature checks. All dashboard screens rendered. Live checks covered paused Calculator recovery and disposable-process controls. GitHub checks passed: https://github.com/blitzreels/blitzclean/actions/runs/37905876079

Revive resumes paused processes; an app stuck in a deadlock can still require quitting and reopening.

BlitzClean 1.3.0 adds automatic updates, rebuilds Overview around a Check my Mac audit, and adds System Data cleanup.

Changes

• Automatic updates. BlitzClean now checks GitHub once a day, downloads signed updates in the background, and shows Restart to update in the menu bar panel and Settings > Updates. Automatic checks can be turned off there. Versions 1.2.0 and earlier have no updater: download this release once by hand, and later versions arrive automatically.
• Check my Mac. Overview runs five checks in parallel (memory and CPU, caches, project data and regrown folders, Docker, app responsiveness) and ranks what is worth doing, each with one action. Only Clean removes anything from Overview; other findings open the page that owns them.
• Load rings. Memory, CPU, and storage load appear as rings beside the check, with the busiest resource in the center. Warnings color the value in the legend. The menu bar panel uses the same rings, plus last-minute charts and each top app's share of RAM.
• Memory > Processes lists each process's own RAM footprint, owner, and PID.
• System Data cleanup leads Storage Cleanup: eligible browser and developer caches, plus diagnostic reports older than 30 days after explicit review.
• Faster scans. Overview and Cleanup measure only cleanup locations; the full inventory runs when Inventory is opened.
• Settings. Each Finish setup permission has Not needed, which also clears the sidebar badge. A new section links to BlitzRecorder and BlitzReels.
• Design. No gradients or glows, one accent color per view, and faint text raised to AA contrast.

See the changelog for the full list.

Privacy

The daily update check is BlitzClean's only network request. It fetches appcast.xml from this repository's releases and sends the app version in its user agent. Updates install only when their EdDSA signature matches the key built into the app.

Download

• macOS 14 or later; universal binary for Apple silicon and Intel.
• BlitzClean-1.3.0-macOS.zip contains BlitzClean.app. The matching .sha256 file verifies the archive.
• Developer ID signed with hardened runtime and a secure timestamp, including the embedded Sparkle framework.
• Notarized by Apple; the ticket is stapled and Gatekeeper reports Notarized Developer ID.

Validation

• 305 tests passed locally, plus formatting, property list, shell syntax, and signature checks.
• GitHub checks: https://github.com/blitzreels/blitzclean/actions/runs/37605980915
• Checked in the installed app: Overview idle state, Settings permissions with and without a skipped permission, and the Sparkle framework loading in a signed build. The update feed signature was verified against the published archive.
• Not yet exercised end to end: an installed 1.3.0 updating itself. That first happens with the next release.