Radix

Active · Website · Source repository

Free open-source disk space analyzer for macOS 14+ by solo dev Colin Kim. Sunburst and treemap views, scan-over-scan comparison, saved .radixscan snapshots, and a staged Discard Pile that only ever moves files to Trash. SwiftUI native, MIT licensed, signed and notarized, Sparkle auto-updates, Homebrew cask.

Platforms

• macOS

Interface

• GUI

Tech stack

• Swift
• SwiftUI

Swift 6.2 + SwiftUI (README: Xcode 26+ to build; repo language Swift); Sparkle via SwiftPM for updates

Features

• Space Usage Visualize
• Storage Tracker

Dev-junk cleaning

Not a focus

Development

Solo developer · original author still leads

colinvkim

Solo dev Colin Kim: ~1045 of ~1051 commits; four external contributors at 1-3 commits each.

License

MIT

MIT LICENSE in repo; launch posts: 'free and open-source'

Price

Free

'Free and open-source!' (r/macapps); site: 'free forever'

Launched

Apr 2, 2026

repo_created_at

Repo created

Apr 2, 2026

First release

Apr 4, 2026

Domain registered

Jul 18, 2026 (tryradix.app)

Last seen alive

Oct 30, 2026

Checks

Mechanical checks derived from the fields above. Each row is one fact; "not yet checked" means exactly that, not a failure. There is no composite score; read them together.

• Signing trajectory is documented in the releases: v1.0.0-v1.1.0-2 (Apr-May 2026) shipped unsigned with 'System Settings > Open Anyway' instructions; v1.1.1 (2026-06-01) announced 'Radix is finally signed and notarized' and added Sparkle EdDSA update signing
• Sparkle appcast at tryradix.app/appcast.xml - every enclosure carries sparkle:edSignature
• No SECURITY.md or disclosure contact found in repo or site
• Site claims scans and results stay local with no account; no analytics/telemetry frameworks found in the source tree (the only outbound call is the Sparkle update check)
• Does not run elevated or install helpers; for protected folders it requests Full Disk Access, a user-granted TCC permission, not privilege escalation

Relations

• inspired by DaisyDisk (paid macOS disk space analyzer)

  I built Radix as an alternative to DaisyDisk ($9.99).

• inspired by SquirrelDisk, GrandPerspective, Disk Inventory X (open-source disk analyzers it positions against)

  I tried using SquirrelDisk instead, an open-source Rust alternative, and it's great, but it hasn't been maintained since the start of 2023. Apps like GrandPerspective and Disk Inventory X are amazing, but Radix also competes with them ... Radix uses sunburst visualization instead of treemaps.

• same author imagetools (on-device browser image utilities site)

  Open-source site for client-side image utilities (SVG-to-PNG, circle-crop), announced on r/SideProject 2026-03-30 - same author's other project, predates the Radix posts.

Research notes

• Deletion safety is designed in: cleanup is a staged Discard Pile review that only ever moves items to Trash (recoverable), and a dedicated TrashSafetyPolicy blocks protected system roots, mounted-volume roots, the home directory, and macOS firmlink boundaries parsed from /usr/share/firmlinks.
• Honest capability disclosure at launch: the first post admits only Tahoe-era Macs were tested, so the minimum was set to macOS 26 'rather than ship something that might not work well' - the floor was lowered to macOS 14 Sonoma within two weeks.
• Responsive maintenance loop: v1.2.0's changelog credits redditors by name for reported issues, and the author says 'quite a few' v1.2.0 changes were inspired by reddit feedback; 13 releases shipped Apr-Sep 2026 with continued pushes through October.
• Engineering shape is unusually solid for the launch wave: ~1050 commits, a Swift Testing suite gated by a GitHub Actions workflow, 7-language localization, APFS clone-aware accounting, and checked-in review/audit docs.
• AI disclosure is narrow: 'thanks Claude!' refers to the marketing website, not the app; the repo does carry AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md agent instructions.

Announcements

2 recorded

Sources

Wrong, stale, or missing something? Flag this listing: corrections reach the site operator, not Radix's developer.