Mole CLI vs CleanMyMac CLI: Which Terminal cleanup tool should you trust?

I thought it was time for a Mole review because it’s picked up more than 57,000+ GitHub stars, and there’s suddenly a wave of posts calling it the CLI that replaces CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus.

Personally, I thought that was a rather large claim for any kind of single open-source maintainer tool that’s going to have access to delete files on your Mac.  

Before anyone willingly hands over that kind of system-level access, some research has to be done, right?

So that’s what I’ve done: I’ve taken some time to really test it, to see how safe its defaults are and who’s behind it. Hopefully you’ll find this a fair review that breaks down all the commands, its safety features, user preferences, and how it compares with other terminal cleanup tools.

Mole review: What it actually does

So, if you’re reading this article, then you probably already know that Mole is a terminal-based Mac cleanup tool.

It’s a Go and Shell-based binary, installed with Homebrew or a curl script. It also includes nice developer touches: Touch ID for sudo, Raycast and Alfred launchers, and JSON output for scripting with commands like mo analyze --json and mo status --json.

Key commands to know

• mo: This opens up an interactive menu.

• mo clean: Clears all your caches, logs, browser data, Trash, and other common junk.

• mo uninstall: Will remove apps and their leftover files.

• mo analyze: This shows a terminal-based disk explorer with ASCII bars, so you can see what is taking up space.

• mo optimize: Refreshes your caches and services.

• mo status: Gives you a live CPU, memory, disk, and network dashboard.

• mo purge: Clears all heavy developer folders like node_modules, target, .build, and venv.

• mo installer: Finds leftover installer files.

Installing and running it safely

The easiest way to install Mole is with Homebrew: brew install mole

There’s also a curl-based installer for older macOS setups, but I’d use Homebrew if you can. It is easier to update, remove, and, more importantly, audit later.

One compatibility avoidance: iTerm2. Terminals like Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty, and Warp are reported to work better.

The main habit I’d build with Mole is: don’t let it delete anything blind. Before running commands like mo clean or mo purge, add --dry-run first ( for example)

• mo clean --dry-run

• mo purge --dry-run

This gives you a preview of what Mole plans to remove, building that kind of safety net in, to me, is very important.

Is Mole actually safe?

No Mole CLI review would be complete without answering this important question. And honestly, Mole has a stronger safety model than I expected, but I still wouldn’t treat it casually. The most important feature is --dry-run, which I mentioned above.

It also has whitelist and protected-path rules, so it’s not supposed to wander into sensitive system locations.

There’s also an operations log which you can find here: ~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log

And you can also use: mo history for auditing what was deleted.

Another thing to mention is the mo analyze command. I find this a bit lower-risk, because it routes deletions through Finder’s Trash instead of wiping them directly. So you get a second chance if you remove the wrong thing.

And I think the open-source side is a genuine plus, because anyone can inspect the code and see what each command does.

But there's always a responsible but; this is still a single-maintainer project with no dedicated support line and no built-in malware or threat detection. The bottom line is, you still need to read the preview before you let it delete files, and that's on you.

Who Mole is actually for

Anyone who's fluent in Terminal and just needs one free tool for cleanup, even app uninstalling, disk analysis, live system stats, and developer-folder purging. And if you’re collecting heavy build artifacts from Node, Python, Rust, Xcode, or other dev workflows, then it’s a great choice.

But if you want a visual review before you delete files, plus focused malware scans, or you want a support team you can actually contact when something goes wrong, it’s probably not the right fit for you.

Instead, you could use CleanMyMac. In particular, its Cleanup feature covers everything from system junk and caches with a nice visual review, then its Protection will give you the malware and privacy scanning Mole doesn’t.

You test all 25+ tools for 7 days — get your free trial here.

Mole vs. CleanMyMac CLI

Mole isn’t the only Terminal option; MacPaw released CleanMyMac CLI in public beta in July 2026.

I’d say the biggest difference is philosophy. Mole is a free, open-source, community-driven all-rounder that does try to replace several Mac utilities in one Terminal tool, while CleanMyMac CLI is narrower right now, with a focus on cleanup, purge, analyze, and optimization commands. The public beta is free, but it isn't open source.

Install CleanMyMac CLI through Homebrew with brew install --cask cleanmymac-cli

Well, that's the end of my Mole review. Mole is definitely an impressive tool. I’d say go for it if you want a powerful open-source terminal toolkit and you’re willing to read every --dry-run preview. Or use CleanMyMac CLI if you want Terminal cleanup backed by MacPaw’s engine and support. And you can use the CleanMyMac desktop app if you’d rather review and clean your Mac visually.