How Node Modules, Docker and Build Artifacts Silently Eat Your Mac's Storage
MacBook developers frequently lose 50GB or more of disk space to overlooked build artifacts that macOS vaguely labels as 'System Data' in storage settings. Inactive project repositories can each hold up to 1.5GB in node_modules folders, while Xcode DerivedData and framework build caches like .next or .turbo add tens of gigabytes more. WhatsApp Desktop alone can accumulate 15GB–40GB of cached media in a hidden local directory. Standard Mac cleaner tools typically miss these developer-specific artifacts or delete them without context, leaving users unsure what is safe to remove. A new tool called Dusty aims to address this by categorizing files into risk tiers and using Gemini AI to explain each item before sending it to the Trash.
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