Free Up Disk Space on a Developer Mac: Xcode, Node, Docker and More

bash dev-disk-report.sh ~/code

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* ~/Library/Developer/* ~/Library/Android ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker ~/.[!.]* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20

#!/bin/bash
# dev-disk-report.sh
# Measures the developer caches, toolchains, emulators and build output that
# usually fill a development Mac: Xcode, Android, Docker, Node, Homebrew,
# CocoaPods, Gradle, Python and more. Read-only: it measures and lists, and
# never deletes anything.
#
# Usage:  bash dev-disk-report.sh                # caches and tools
#         bash dev-disk-report.sh ~/code         # also list node_modules,
#                                                # build and .build folders there
# Guide:  https://appscreens.com/blog/free-up-disk-space-developer-mac
# Tested: macOS 26.7 (bash 3.2). Large folders can take a minute to measure.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
# Copyright (c) 2026 AppScreens. Free to use, copy and change; please keep
# this header, including the guide link.

set -u
SCAN=${1:-}
kb() { if [ -e "$1" ]; then du -skx "$1" 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1}'; else echo 0; fi; }
human() { awk -v k="$1" 'BEGIN { if (k >= 1048576) printf "%.1f GB", k / 1048576; else if (k >= 1024) printf "%.0f MB", k / 1024; else printf "%d KB", k }'; }
short() { case "$1" in "$HOME"*) printf '~%s' "${1#"$HOME"}" ;; *) printf '%s' "$1" ;; esac; }
TMP=$(mktemp -t dev-disk-report); trap 'rm -f "$TMP"' EXIT
add() {  # group, label, kind, path
  [ -e "$4" ] || return 0
  printf "%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\n" "$(kb "$4")" "$1" "$2" "$3" "$4" >> "$TMP"
}
L="$HOME/Library"

add Xcode "DerivedData" generated "$L/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData"
add Xcode "Archives" keep "$L/Developer/Xcode/Archives"
add Xcode "iOS DeviceSupport" download "$L/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport"
add Xcode "macOS DeviceSupport" download "$L/Developer/Xcode/macOS DeviceSupport"
add Xcode "watchOS DeviceSupport" download "$L/Developer/Xcode/watchOS DeviceSupport"
add Xcode "Simulator devices" "your data" "$L/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices"
add Xcode "SwiftPM cache" download "$L/Caches/org.swift.swiftpm"
add Xcode "Xcode cache" generated "$L/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode"
add Android "Android SDK" download "$L/Android/sdk"
add Android "Emulator images (AVDs)" "your data" "$HOME/.android/avd"
add Android "Gradle caches" download "$HOME/.gradle/caches"
add Android "Gradle wrappers" download "$HOME/.gradle/wrapper"
add Java "Maven repository" download "$HOME/.m2/repository"
add Docker "Docker Desktop data" "your data" "$L/Containers/com.docker.docker"
add Node "npm cache" download "$HOME/.npm/_cacache"
add Node "Yarn cache" download "$L/Caches/Yarn"
add Node "pnpm store" download "$L/pnpm/store"
add Node "Bun cache" download "$HOME/.bun/install/cache"
add Node "nvm Node versions" download "$HOME/.nvm/versions"
add Ruby "CocoaPods cache" download "$L/Caches/CocoaPods"
add Ruby "CocoaPods spec repos" download "$HOME/.cocoapods/repos"
add Homebrew "Homebrew downloads" download "$L/Caches/Homebrew"
add Python "pip cache" download "$L/Caches/pip"
add Python "Conda packages" download "$HOME/miniconda3/pkgs"
add Python "Conda packages" download "$HOME/miniconda/pkgs"
add Flutter "Pub cache" download "$HOME/.pub-cache"
add Rust "Cargo registry" download "$HOME/.cargo/registry"
add Go "Go build cache" generated "$L/Caches/go-build"
add Go "Go modules" download "$HOME/go/pkg/mod"
add Browsers "Playwright browsers" download "$L/Caches/ms-playwright"
add Browsers "Puppeteer browsers" download "$HOME/.cache/puppeteer"
add Editors "JetBrains caches" generated "$L/Caches/JetBrains"
add Editors "VS Code cache" generated "$L/Application Support/Code/Cache"
add AI "Ollama models" "your data" "$HOME/.ollama/models"

printf "%-9s  %-9s %-24s %-10s %s\n" SIZE GROUP ITEM KIND PATH
sort -rn "$TMP" | while IFS=$'\t' read -r k g label kind p; do
  [ "$k" -lt 10240 ] && continue
  printf "%-9s  %-9s %-24s %-10s %s\n" "$(human "$k")" "$g" "$label" "$kind" "$(short "$p")"
done
printf "\nKIND: generated = rebuilt automatically, download = fetched again when needed,\n"
printf "keep = needed later (crash symbols), your data = state you may want to keep.\n"

if command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1 && docker info >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  printf "\nDocker (docker system df)\n"; docker system df 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^/  /'
fi
if command -v brew >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  printf "\nHomebrew (brew cleanup --dry-run)\n  %s\n" "$(brew cleanup --dry-run 2>/dev/null | tail -1)"
fi

if [ -n "$SCAN" ]; then
  printf "\nProject build output under %s (largest 15)\n" "$(short "$SCAN")"
  find "$SCAN" \( -name node_modules -o -name .build -o -name build -o -name .gradle -o -name Pods -o -name .next -o -name dist -o -name DerivedData \) -type d -prune -print 2>/dev/null |
    while read -r d; do printf "%s\t%s\n" "$(kb "$d")" "$d"; done | sort -rn | head -15 |
    while IFS=$'\t' read -r k d; do printf "  %-9s %s\n" "$(human "$k")" "$(short "$d")"; done
fi
printf "\nNothing was deleted. Safe cleanup steps for each item:\n"
printf "https://appscreens.com/blog/free-up-disk-space-developer-mac\n"

xcrun simctl list devices unavailable
du -sh ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/"iOS DeviceSupport"/*

find ~/code \( -name node_modules -o -name build -o -name .build -o -name dist \) -type d -prune -exec du -sh {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20

npm cache clean --force
pnpm store prune

nvm ls

nvm uninstall 16.13.0

docker system df

docker builder prune --all
docker image prune -a

~/Library/Android/sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager --list_installed
~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator/emulator -list-avds

~/Library/Android/sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager --uninstall "system-images;android-30;google_apis;x86"

~/Library/Android/sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/avdmanager delete avd -n Pixel_XL_2

pod repo list

pod repo remove cocoapods
pod cache clean --all

brew cleanup --dry-run
brew autoremove --dry-run

brew cleanup --prune=all
brew autoremove

pip cache dir
conda clean --all --dry-run
ollama list

pip cache purge
conda clean --all

AppScreens.com, "Free Up Disk Space on a Developer Mac: Xcode, Node, Docker and More", 10 November 2026. https://appscreens.com/blog/free-up-disk-space-developer-mac