r/macappdevs — an honest Mac cleaner by u/lumen-x
Earliest author promotion found (13:02 UTC, ~2 hours after repo creation)
Spare
Also known as: An Honest Mac Cleaner
Active · Website · Source repository
macOS 14+ Apple-silicon cleaner in Swift that 'says plainly what each thing is and what happens once it's gone'. Deep scope: cleanup of Xcode/build folders/package caches/app caches, Space (folder sizes), Purgeable Space via macOS's own cleanup service, macOS install leftovers, iCloud/cloud download removal, app uninstaller with /Library leftovers, package managers (Homebrew, npm, pnpm, Bun, Cargo, uv, pipx), toolchains (rustup, Node, Python, Ruby, conda), stray /usr/local commands, Xcode simulators via simctl, Docker disk usage, browser extensions listing, privacy/debloat switches (Apple Intelligence models, data sharing, Apple apps, annoyances), login/background items, system extensions/drivers/fonts/installer receipts, installer-created accounts, privacy permission resets, and a History with Put Back. Everything goes to Trash; admin actions batched into one request; no background process; 'no network access except optional update checks'. Signed but not notarized.
- Platforms
- Interface
- Tech stack
- Swift, SwiftUI (per CSV; repo language: Swift)
- Features
- Dev-junk cleaning
- One of its features
- Development
- Unknown · leadership unknown
- License
- MITCSV says Closed Source: at launch only the binary lived on github.com/lumen-xx/spare-releases; after 'why closed source if free?' pushback the same day, the MIT source repo lumen-xx/spare went public and spare-releases became a shim ('only passes updates on to older installs')
- Price
- Free'Pricing: Free' in the launch post; 'The app is totally free'
- Launched
- repo_created_at
- Repo created
- GitHub stars
- 40 (as of 2026-10-31)
- First release
- Domain registered
- (opyuii.com)
- Last seen alive
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.
| Track record | 21 days ago |
|---|---|
| Source published | Not yet checked |
| Release signing | Not yet checked |
| Security contact | Not yet checked |
| Reproducible builds | Not yet checked |
| Telemetry | Not yet checked |
| Runs elevated | Not yet checked |
| Auto-update channel | Not yet checked |
| Recent activity | Last seen 16 days ago |
Research notes
- Closed-to-open flip on launch day: released with binaries only (spare-releases repo); the same day the MIT source repo went public and spare-releases was repurposed as an updater shim for older installs.
- Same-day double launch: on 2026-10-13 the author also launched a second product, a per-app volume/routing/virtual-mic menu bar app ('Voidamp Mic 1').
- Repo-to-launch in hours: spare-releases created 10:53 UTC, first r/macappdevs post 13:02. Nine releases (v0.5.0-v0.5.4) within ~10 hours Oct 13-14.
- Not notarized at launch: 'macOS asks once before opening'; README instructs right-click Open Anyway / xattr -dr quarantine.
- Gallery-post marketing: the post body is a stub; the 'Comparison' section is images, not text.
- Unusually deep feature list for the niche (purgeable space via macOS service, Apple Intelligence model removal, installer-created accounts) - either genuinely engineered or very confidently scoped.
Announcements
2 recorded
r/MacStack — An honest Mac cleaner by u/lumen-x
Canonical entry from the project CSV; reposts an identical r/MacStack submission made 7 minutes earlier (1x4w26b)
Mac cleaners either scare you into a subscription or only show what's big, and none say plainly what something is or what breaks if you delete it. Uninstalling also leaves things behind: login and background items, drivers, files in /Library, accounts installers created. — Problem statement
Pricing: Free. macOS 14+, Apple silicon — Virtue
The app isn't notarized yet, so macOS asks once before opening it. Spare works entirely on your Mac and sends nothing anywhere. — Trust signal
Sources
| URL | Role | Status | Checked | Archive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| opyuii.com/spare | homepage | 200 | ||
| github.com/lumen-xx/spare | repo | 200 | ||
| github.com/lumen-xx/spare-releases | other | 200 |
Established alternatives
Related tools
Wrong, stale, or missing something? Flag this listing: corrections reach the site operator, not Spare's developer. Last reviewed .