A careful cleanup app, made by one person

Why Tidlark exists

Mac cleanup apps have a reputation problem, and much of it is earned. Many show a big red number, select everything for you and promise a faster Mac. Some of what they remove is harmless to remove; some of it is your data, or something an app needs.

Tidlark is the app I wanted for my own Macs. It follows a few rules:

• Explain before deleting. Every item says what it is, where it lives and what removing it means. “The next Xcode build takes longer” is a cost, and Tidlark says so.
• You choose. Scans only look. Personal files such as large files, duplicates and downloads are never selected for you.
• Recoverable by default. Your files go to the Trash. System items that need administrator rights go to Tidlark’s Holding Area, where you can restore them for 30 days. The confirmation sheet names anything that can’t be undone.
• No subscription. One payment of USD 56 covers 2 Macs. See pricing.
• No telemetry. Tidlark has no analytics, advertising or tracking code, and your files, file names and scan results are never sent to us. The privacy policy lists every connection the app makes, such as license activation and update checks.
• No speed promises. Freeing disk space helps when a disk is nearly full. It won’t make a healthy Mac faster, and Tidlark doesn’t pretend otherwise.

How it’s built

Tidlark is a native Mac app. The interface is written in SwiftUI and follows your light or dark setting. The scanning work (walking folders, measuring sizes, reading model file headers, matching threat rules) runs in an engine written in Rust, so it is fast and doesn’t load your files into memory all at once.

• Signed and notarized. Each release is signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, so macOS can check it hasn’t been altered. Updates are delivered inside the app and verified with a signature before they install.
• Signed security rules. Threat Check uses the YARA-X engine with a rule pack that is signed. Tidlark refuses a rule pack whose signature doesn’t match, or one older than the pack it already has.
• Evidence, not guesses. The Uninstaller links files to an app by evidence such as its bundle identifier, developer team, installer receipts and launch entries. A file that only looks similar by name is marked “unverified” and left unselected. More in the uninstall guide.
• The Holding Area. Items that need administrator rights to remove are moved, not deleted, into a protected Holding Area. The History lists every item and where it went.
• Re-checked before acting. What you selected is checked again just before removal. If a file changed, or an app started running, it is skipped and you are told why.

How it’s tested

The rules that decide what can be selected have automated tests: for example, that a name-only match is never pre-selected, that a group container shared with another installed app is protected, that Apple’s own apps can’t be removed, and that model files shared between two AI models are kept while either still uses them. Release builds go through the same signing and notarization checks every time.

Tests can’t cover every Mac. If Tidlark does something you didn’t expect, please tell me; that is exactly the report I want.

Where it comes from

Tidlark 1.0.0 was released on 14 November 2026. It runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later, on Apple silicon and Intel. See the changelog for what’s in it.

Purchases are handled by Paddle, the reseller and Merchant of Record, which takes care of payment, tax and receipts. The license server and this website are run by me.

Contact

• Support and anything else: support@tidlark.com. A real person, me, reads every message.
• Privacy questions: privacy@tidlark.com.
• Postal address: Maulik Dave, 703/2, Sector 4C, Gandhinagar 382006, Gujarat, India.

If you’re new here, the guides explain how to free space and remove apps by hand, with or without Tidlark.

Download Tidlark