The MacPilot
Journal.
Guides and insight on storage, caches, Docker and performance.
How to Free Up Disk Space on Mac: The Developer's Complete Guide
From APFS clone-aware deduplication to DerivedData nukes and Docker.raw shrinking — the most complete storage reclaim guide for macOS engineers.
How to Kill a Process on a Port on Mac (localhost:3000, 5432, 8080)
The right way to find and kill whatever is listening on localhost:3000, 8080, or 5432 on macOS — using lsof, process tree resolution, and MacPilot.
How to Uninstall Apps on Mac Completely (Including All Leftover Files)
Dragging an app to Trash leaves GB of hidden files behind. Here's how to find and delete LaunchAgents, containers, caches, and support files using MacPilot's Symlink-Safe Remnant Hunter.
How to Clean node_modules & Build Caches Safely Without Corrupting Git or Losing Work
Blindly running rm -rf on project dependencies during active rebases, merges, or compiler runs risks file locking corruption and uncommitted code loss. Here is how Git Safety Intelligence audits repository health before deleting a single byte.
Why Deleting ~/Library/Caches Slows Down Your Mac: The Stale-Aware Cache Guide
Standard Mac cleaners blindly purge ~/Library/Caches, triggering the infamous 'post-cleanup stutter' where apps redownload hundreds of MBs of avatars and shader caches. Here is how Stale-Aware Cache Eviction keeps your Mac fast while freeing tens of gigabytes.
How to Find and Delete Orphaned .plist Files on Mac (Without Breaking System Settings)
Dragging an app to the Trash never deletes its ~/Library/Preferences configuration. Over time, hundreds of dead .plist files clutter your Mac. Here is how to safely hunt orphaned plists by cross-referencing active bundle identifiers.
APFS Zero-Cost Deduplication vs Deleting Duplicates: Why Block-Sharing Wins
Deleting duplicate files often breaks project references, symlinks, or audio/video libraries. Discover how Darwin clonefile(2) shares identical physical SSD blocks at zero disk cost without deleting files or altering directory paths.
How to Push Background Tasks to Apple Silicon E-Cores for Better Mac Performance
Apple Silicon has separate Performance (P) and Efficiency (E) cores. Using POSIX QoS APIs, you can deprioritize background processes to E-cores and reclaim P-core headroom for your primary work.
Ollama, LM Studio & Hugging Face Are Eating Your Disk: How to Manage AI Models on Mac
A 7B model is 4+ GB, and you probably have duplicates across multiple AI hubs. Here's how to audit, deduplicate, and reclaim space from LLM model weights on Apple Silicon.
node_modules Taking Up Space on Mac: Find and Delete Them All
How to find every node_modules directory across your Mac, identify safe candidates for deletion, and clear npm/yarn/pnpm caches too.
Why Time Machine Snapshots Are Taking Up 20–80 GB on Your Mac
macOS silently creates local APFS snapshots. Here's how to find them, what they contain, and how to safely delete them using tmutil and MacPilot.
"Your System Has Run Out of Application Memory" on Mac: Fix It Permanently
What the memory pressure alert actually means on Apple Silicon, which processes to terminate first, and how to prevent it from coming back.
APFS Copy-on-Write Deduplication: Free Up Space Without Deleting Files
How Darwin's clonefile(2) system call makes duplicate files share physical disk blocks on Apple Silicon — and how MacPilot uses it safely.
Docker.raw Is Huge on Mac: How to Shrink It Without Losing Data
Why Docker.raw grows to 60+ GB on Apple Silicon Macs, how to prune dangling images, and how to safely compact the virtual disk.
How to Inspect Active AWS EC2 Sessions and SSH Tunnels on Your Mac
Find all active AWS SSM sessions, SSH port forwards (-L/-R/-D), and Cloudflare tunnels running on your Mac using Darwin KERN_PROCARGS2 inspection.
Is Xcode DerivedData Safe to Delete? (Yes, and Here's How)
What's in DerivedData, why it grows to 30+ GB, whether it's safe to delete, and how to clear it along with iOS simulators and DeviceSupport caches.