Questions worth asking

Yes. DerivedData holds intermediate build products and indexes. Xcode regenerates all of it. The only cost is that your next build is a clean build, so it takes longer once. It contains no source code — your projects live wherever you cloned them.

No. It classifies every path as regenerable, replaceable or irreplaceable, and it will not offer to remove anything in the last class. Working trees, uncommitted changes and anything under a .git directory are excluded from reclaim entirely — even when they sit inside a folder that is otherwise cruft.

Because almost all developer cruft lives under ~/Library, and since macOS Catalina that directory is protected. Without the permission the scan quietly returns a map that is missing the interesting half. DevCruft only ever reads during a scan; deletion happens on paths you have seen listed and confirmed.

Those draw a beautiful map of your disk and stop there. They show you a 62 GB folder called DerivedData and leave you to work out whether it matters. DevCruft draws the same kind of map but already knows what each folder is, whether it regenerates, and which project it belongs to.

They are lists of checkboxes. You cannot see relative size, so you cannot tell whether the row you are about to tick is worth 400 MB or 40 GB. DevCruft leads with the map, so scale is the first thing you perceive, and the list is there when you want the detail.

No. There is no account, no sign-in and no analytics enabled by default. A scan never transmits file names or paths. The app contacts the network for exactly two things: checking for an update, and the one-time licence purchase — both of which you can decline and still use the map.

Nothing. Your licence is an Ed25519-signed file verified entirely on your Mac, with no activation server in the path. If this site vanishes tomorrow, DevCruft keeps launching and keeps working — it just stops getting updates.

No, and there will not be one. Pro is $14 paid once, usable on 2 Macs you own, with a 30-day refund if you want one.

Yes. One universal build covers Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 13.0 and later.

Absolutely, and our blog shows you exactly how for every cache DevCruft handles. The commands are free and they work. The app is worth paying for when you would rather see the whole picture than remember twelve paths.