Productivity utilities · checked 2026-10-20

Can I vibecode CleanMyMac?

YES· one-shottable

Most of what CleanMyMac does is look in known folders and measure them: caches, logs, old downloads, large files, duplicates, and an app's leftovers in ~/Library. An agent can build that as a command-line tool with a dry run in one sitting, and moving files to the Trash instead of deleting keeps mistakes recoverable. What it can't copy is the malware database, the permission handling across macOS versions and years of knowing which folders are safe to clear. Mole and Pearcleaner already cover the free version, so build your own only if you want to control exactly what it touches.

$9.99/moprice

$120you'd save a year

one sittingbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyBeginner · No setup beyond your agent.

TimeOne to two hours

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
A Mac on macOS 13 or laterThe tool reads Mac-specific folders and refuses to run elsewhere.
Python 3.12Install with Homebrew or python.org.
Full Disk Access for your terminalSystem Settings > Privacy & Security; without it, protected caches show as unreadable.

Before you buildMole and Pearcleaner are free and do most of this today. Try them before you ask an agent to write another one.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a Mac cleanup tool to replace CleanMyMac. Requirements:

- Python 3.12 command-line tool called `tidy` (typer for commands, rich for tables), installed
with `pip install -e .`. Targets macOS 13 or later; it refuses to run on any other system.
- Rules live in ./rules/*.yaml, one file per category: caches (~/Library/Caches), logs, Xcode
DerivedData, package-manager caches, browser caches and old iOS backups. Each rule has a path
glob, a minimum age in days, a safety note and a flag for whether it needs Full Disk Access.
- `tidy scan` prints each rule with the size it would free (a parallel `os.scandir` walk) and
never deletes. `tidy big --over 500MB --older 180d` lists large, untouched files by size, and
`tidy dupes <folder>` groups identical files by size, then a partial hash, then a full SHA-256.
- `tidy uninstall <App.app>` finds leftovers in ~/Library (Application Support, Caches,
Preferences, Containers, LaunchAgents) from the bundle ID, lists them with sizes, and asks per group.
- `tidy clean` is a dry run unless I pass `--yes`; deletions go to the Trash with `send2trash`,
nothing is removed with rm, and every run appends what it moved to ./data/log.jsonl so a move
can be undone with `tidy undo <run-id>`.
- Never touch /System, /Library, other users' folders, ~/Documents, ~/Desktop or anything in
./data/protect.txt; a unit test checks each rule's expanded path against these.
- `tidy startup` lists login items and LaunchAgents with their signing status from `codesign -dv`.
- No accounts, no telemetry, local-first: no network calls at all.
- Out of scope: malware scanning, menu bar monitoring, system maintenance scripts, Photos library cleanup.
- README: granting Full Disk Access to the terminal, how the Trash undo works and why the rules
skip the folders above.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own CleanMyMac.

Add a weekly report to the cleanup tool in this folder. Requirements:

- A launchd agent installed by `tidy report install` runs `tidy scan --json` every Sunday at 10:00
  and writes the result to ./data/reports/<date>.json.
- A small menu bar item (`rumps`) shows the reclaimable total from the latest report and the
  change since last week; clicking it opens the report in the terminal.
- Nothing is ever deleted by the agent: it only scans and notifies once a week through macOS
  notifications, and only when the total is over a threshold in tidy.toml.
- `tidy report uninstall` removes the agent and its plist.
- Update the README with where launchd keeps the plist.

Extend `tidy startup` in this folder. Requirements:

- Keep a known-good list in ./data/known.json (bundle ID and team ID). After the first run,
  mark it all as known, and flag anything new on later runs.
- For each item show who signed it (`codesign -dv --verbose=4`), whether it is notarized
  (`spctl -a -vv`), the path of the plist and when it was first seen.
- `tidy startup disable <label>` runs `launchctl bootout` and moves the plist to the Trash,
  and records it so `tidy undo` can put it back.
- Do not claim anything is malware: label the results "unrecognised" or "unsigned" only.
- Update the README with the limits of these checks.

Extend `tidy big` in this folder. Requirements:

- Accept several roots (including /Volumes/*) and group results by top-level folder with the
  total size, the oldest and newest access time, and the number of files.
- Add file-type groups (video, disk image, archive, virtual machine, node_modules, build output)
  using extensions in rules/types.yaml.
- Cache the scan in ./data/scan.db with Python's `sqlite3` so a second run only re-reads
  directories whose modified time changed.
- Output a treemap as a single local HTML file using plain SVG, with sizes in the tooltips.
- Update the README with scan times on a large disk.

What you lose

Malware scanning against a maintained threat database
A menu bar app with memory and disk monitoring
Cleanup rules that MacPaw updates as macOS and apps change
Duplicate and similar-photo matching for Photos libraries
Support when a cleanup breaks something

Why people still pay

People want one button that is safe to press. The rules inside encode what can go on each macOS version, and a polished app that handles permissions, previews and undo takes away the fear of deleting the wrong thing.

Moatexecution polish brand & trust proprietary data

Do the math

CleanMyMac or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time3h ×$/h

CleanMyMac, 1 yr$120

Your own copy, 1 yr$6running + build session

You keep$114pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · No running cost: it is a local command-line tool. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving CleanMyMac

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of CleanMyMac

1CleanMyMac keeps no documents of yours: there is nothing to export. Settings such as ignore lists live in the app, so note them down before you remove it.
2Your licence or subscription is tied to your MacPaw account (my.macpaw.com) or to the App Store or Setapp; note which one you used so you cancel in the right place.

2 · Cancel CleanMyMac

1MacPaw Store: sign in to your MacPaw Account, choose CleanMyMac and click Cancel Subscription; the status should show Inactive within a few minutes.
2App Store: open the App Store, click your name, then Account Settings, and under Subscriptions choose CleanMyMac and confirm.
3Setapp: manage it through Setapp itself; MacPaw's cancel page doesn't cover it.
4Canceling stops auto-renewal; you keep access until the end of the current period, and then most features lock.

Refund windows differ by plan: MacPaw's store page showed 30 days for annual and one-time plans and 14 days for monthly; the App Store follows Apple's rules.
Uninstalling the app does not cancel the subscription: cancel first, and remove it with its own uninstall option afterwards.
A one-time purchase of CleanMyMac X keeps working but doesn't include major version upgrades, so it won't unlock the newest CleanMyMac.
If you came through Setapp, access to CleanMyMac ends with the Setapp membership.

Checked 2026-10-20 against CleanMyMac's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

MoleOpen sourceGPL-3.0 command-line cleaner for macOS with deep clean, app uninstall, disk analysis and system monitoring, plus a native Mac app.★ 72k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
macOSVisit ↗PearcleanerFreeFree Mac app uninstaller that finds an app's leftover files; the source is public under a fair-code license (Apache-2.0 with the Commons Clause), not an open-source one.★ 15k · active Jun 2026 · they host it
macOSVisit ↗CzkawkaOpen sourceFree duplicate-file, empty-folder and similar-image finder with a command line and a desktop interface; the repository mixes open-source licenses.★ 34k · active Sep 2026 · they host it
macOS, Windows, LinuxVisit ↗

The numbers

CleanMyMac pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Monthly, 1 Mac	$9.99	—	All cleanup, performance, uninstaller, duplicate-finder and malware-scan features on one Mac.
Yearly, 1 Mac	—	$3.33	Same features, billed once a year.
Plus yearly (App Store)	—	$5.50	Listed at $65.99 a year; the listing doesn't say what Plus adds.
2 and 5 Macs (MacPaw Store)	custom	—	The MacPaw Store also sells plans for 2 and 5 Macs at a lower price per Mac.
One-time purchase	custom	—	The App Store lists CleanMyMac X one-time for $89.99. MacPaw's help says a one-time purchase includes updates but not major version upgrades.

Billing: Automatically renewing monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time purchase. MacPaw's store page showed 30-day money-back on annual and one-time plans and 14 days on monthly. Canceling stops renewal and you keep access until the period ends.
Hidden costs: The price depends on where you buy: the MacPaw Store shows local currency, and the App Store and Setapp differ. The store's headline price is the yearly one divided by 12,. Malware scanning is described as powered by Moonlock, MacPaw's security product.
Source: apps.apple.com

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Questions

CleanMyMac, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

A free trial is offered (7 days in the App Store listing); the pages we read don't spell out the trial's limits.

Yes. An AI coding agent such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can build a usable personal version in one session with the prompt on this page, running on your own machine.

About $9.99 a month on the CleanMyMac Monthly, one Mac plan, $119.88 a year (checked 2026-10-20).

Malware scanning against a maintained threat database; A menu bar app with memory and disk monitoring; Cleanup rules that MacPaw updates as macOS and apps change; Duplicate and similar-photo matching for Photos libraries; Support when a cleanup breaks something. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.