Burrow

How Burrow compares to other tools

A factual feature/scope comparison. The competitor columns are the macOS landscape; the Windows column reflects only the checked-in preview. mole.fit is from the original author of mo — buy it ($19) if you want that and to fund mo.

| | Burrow (macOS) | Burrow (Windows preview) | mole.fit | CleanMyMac | Pearcleaner | mo / ncdu | |---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Price | Free | Free | $19 once | Subscription | Free | Free | | Open source | MIT | MIT | – | – | ✅ | ✅ (mo) | | Signed / notarized | No — unsigned current release | No — unsigned preview | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | n/a | | Junk cleanup | ✅ | partial - Clean route pending | ✅ | ✅ | – | ✅ (mo) | | Dev-artifact purge | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | partial | – | ✅ (mo) | | Leftover-installer sweep | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | – | ✅ (mo) | | Uninstall + leftovers | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (focus) | ✅ (mo) | | Disk treemap | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | – | ncdu (TUI) | | Live system monitor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | partial | – | – | | Long-term metric history | ✅ | ✅ (JSON) | – | – | – | – | | MCP / agent API | ✅ | ✅ | – | – | – | – | | GUI | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | – (terminal) |

Settings

Everything is local and takes effect immediately unless noted:

| Setting | What it controls | |---|---| | History retention | How long metric history is kept (1 day → 1 year); older rows are pruned hourly. | | Vacuum after large prunes | Reclaim DB file space after a big prune (off by default). | | Sampling rate | How often Burrow runs mo status --json (5 s → 5 min). | | App language | Follow the system, or force English / 简体中文 / 繁體中文 (relaunch). | | Menu-bar icon | Show the menu-bar item, or run as a regular Dock app instead. | | MCP / agent access | Copyable stdio config + the tool list for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Cline, and any MCP client. | | Local HTTP query server | Optional loopback REST endpoints + port for dashboards/curl. On Windows, disabling this keeps the local /mcp bridge available for stdio MCP. | | Mole engine | Shows the installed mo version, with a one-click Update Mole. |

Permissions & Full Disk Access

Cleaning system and app caches means reading TCC-protected folders, so macOS will prompt — once per folder — unless the app has Full Disk Access. Burrow handles this honestly:

• Before a flood-prone scan it shows a gate explaining the trade-off, with a

one-click link to System Settings → Full Disk Access (grant once, no more prompts).

• Don't want to grant it? Scan with admin runs the same scan as root —

root bypasses TCC, so it's a single password prompt instead of a flood.

• Burrow only ever reads sizes; it never opens that data itself, and the real

cleanup always goes through macOS's own admin dialog.

Requirements

macOS

• macOS 14+
• The Mole CLI — brew install mole. Hard requirement; Burrow refuses to

launch without mo on PATH (and offers a guided install if it's missing).

Windows preview

• Windows 10/11
• .NET 8 SDK for local build/test.
• Inno Setup only when running the unsigned release packaging script.

Install

> macOS releases are currently unsigned. Each macOS path below clears the > Gatekeeper quarantine for you. The full security/trust write-up — network, > admin rights, and the trade-offs — is in [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md).

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install mole                        # required engine
brew install --cask caezium/tap/burrow   # the app (clears quarantine)

Direct download

Download Burrow-x.y.z.zip from Releases, unzip into /Applications, then:

xattr -cr /Applications/Burrow.app
open /Applications/Burrow.app

macOS build from source

brew install xcodegen mole
git clone https://github.com/caezium/Burrow.git && cd Burrow/macos
xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -project Burrow.xcodeproj -scheme Burrow \
  -configuration Release -destination 'generic/platform=macOS' \
  -derivedDataPath build \
  CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY="" CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED=NO CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO build
cp -R build/Build/Products/Release/Burrow.app /Applications/
xattr -cr /Applications/Burrow.app
open /Applications/Burrow.app

Burrow lives in the menu bar (it's a menu-bar agent). Click the icon → Open Burrow — or turn the menu-bar icon off in Settings to run it as a Dock app.

Windows preview build

git clone https://github.com/caezium/Burrow.git
cd Burrow\windows
dotnet restore .\BurrowWin.sln
dotnet build .\BurrowWin.csproj -c Release -p:Platform=x64 -nr:false -v:minimal
dotnet test .\Tests\BurrowWin.Tests\BurrowWin.Tests.csproj -c Release -v:minimal

To create the checked-in unsigned preview artifacts locally:

.\scripts\build-release.ps1

That script builds the app, runs tests, publishes the WinUI payload, creates an unsigned Inno Setup installer, creates a portable ZIP fallback, writes SHA256SUMS.txt, and writes WinGet manifests. See [windows/docs/release.md](windows/docs/release.md).

Security & trust

Burrow drives the audited mo CLI. The honest privacy picture:

• No accounts, no ads. Your metrics, history, and file contents stay on

your machine. The macOS app sends opt-out, anonymous usage analytics and crash reports (no files, paths, metrics, or stored IP — sizes/counts are bucketed); turn it off in Settings. Full list in [TELEMETRY.md](TELEMETRY.md).

• No background root helper. When Clean/Optimize need admin rights, macOS's

own dialog asks you and Burrow runs that one mo command, then exits — you approve every elevation.

• Local-only surfaces: the MCP/HTTP surfaces bind to loopback only

(127.0.0.1) and history is stored locally. On Windows, the HTTP REST toggle disables REST endpoints but keeps the local /mcp bridge route available for stdio MCP clients. The macOS Updates tab runs brew outdated, the same check brew does for itself.

• Unsigned preview builds: macOS release zips and Windows preview artifacts

are unsigned in the current repo state. Windows direct-download users should expect SmartScreen or stricter Application Control policy prompts.

• The full honest write-up, including macOS admin trade-offs and the "Scan with

admin" option, is in [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md).

Use it with your AI agent

Burrow doubles as an MCP server over stdio, so any MCP-capable agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Cline, Zed, and others — can read your machine's recent state. Same server, same {command, args} shape everywhere.

Let your agent set it up

For macOS, paste this to your coding agent and it'll wire itself in:

> Add the Burrow MCP server to my config so you can read my Mac's system > history. It's a local stdio MCP server — run it as burrow mcp if the > Homebrew shim is on my PATH, otherwise > /Applications/Burrow.app/Contents/MacOS/Burrow with args ["--mcp"]. Add it > under my MCP servers, reload, and confirm the tools burrow_snapshot, > burrow_history, burrow_top_processes, burrow_process_usage, and > burrow_info are available. Then tell me my Mac's current CPU and memory.

Or configure it manually

The config is the same JSON for every agent — only the file differs:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "burrow": {
      "command": "/Applications/Burrow.app/Contents/MacOS/Burrow",
      "args": ["--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

| Agent | Where it goes | |---|---| | Claude Code | ~/.claude/settings.json — or claude mcp add burrow -- /Applications/Burrow.app/Contents/MacOS/Burrow --mcp | | Cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per project) | | Codex | add a [mcp_servers.burrow] entry in ~/.codex/config.toml | | Cline / Zed / other | the client's "MC

…

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: caezium
• Source: caezium/Burrow
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://burrow.henryzh.dev

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.