Macos Maintenance

macOS Maintenance

Periodic once-over: sweep (read-only) → report → confirm → apply → verify. Optimization = real wins only: updates applied, reboot when due, indexing sane, startup load lean. No snake-oil (purge, blind cache wipes, repair-permissions theater). Storage/junk → macos-cleanup, hand off.

Sweep (read-only)

Run all categories, every one shows up in the report — clean ones as "ok", never silently omitted. Warn up front: softwareupdate -l + diskutil verifyVolume take a minute+.

1. Updates — softwareupdate -l (slow); brew update >/dev/null && brew outdated (metadata-only refresh, ok in sweep); brew doctor (warnings only, most are noise — flag real ones).
2. Disk health — df -h / free %; diskutil info disk0 | grep -i smart -> must say Verified; diskutil verifyVolume / (read-only First Aid, live-volume ok); tmutil listlocalsnapshots / count (thinning is automatic — report only).
3. Memory/CPU — memory_pressure (plain run prints summary); sysctl vm.swapusage — heavy swap + warning level -> note worst consumers via top -l 2 -o mem -n 5 -stats pid,command,cpu,mem.
4. Battery — pmset -g batt; system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -E 'Cycle Count|Condition|Maximum Capacity' -> Condition ≠ Normal or capacity fallback tmutil listbackups | tail -1). Last backup >7d = attention; not configured = say so once, user's call.
5. Spotlight — mdutil -s / (enabled? stuck "in progress"?); ps aux | grep -E 'mds_stores|mdworker' | grep -v grep CPU%. Optimization: big dev trees indexed -> suggest Spotlight Privacy exclusions for build-artifact dirs (node_modules, target, .venv parents) — GUI only, System Settings → Siri & Spotlight.
6. Crashes/panics — ls -lt ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports | head; ls /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports 2>/dev/null | grep -i panic. Repeated crashes of one app or any kernel panic = attention + name it.
7. Uptime — uptime. >14d -> recommend reboot (memory leaks + pending updates accumulate; that's the whole fix, no theater).
8. Startup load — osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to get name of every login item' + LaunchAgents count. Just the headcount here — deep dead-agent audit lives in macos-cleanup, point there if list looks bloated.

Report

Table per category: check · finding · verdict (ok / attention = watch it / action = fix available, named). Lead with one-line summary: "N ok, N attention, N actions available". Then AskUserQuestion multiSelect over the actions only.

Actions (each confirmed, side effects stated first)

• OS updates: sudo softwareupdate -i -a — sudo -> ask; may require restart, say which updates do.
• brew upgrade: brew upgrade — list what bumps first; pinned/work-critical tools -> per-formula brew upgrade instead.
• Reboot: recommend, user does it themselves.
• Spotlight reindex (stuck/corrupt index): sudo mdutil -E / — search degraded for hours on big disks, mds burns CPU meanwhile. One bad folder -> cheaper: add to Spotlight Privacy, wait 1 min, remove -> reindexes just it, no sudo.
• First Aid repair (verify found errors): live / can't be repaired mounted -> Recovery Mode First Aid, give steps; data risk = back up first.

Targeted fixes

When sweep or user flags a specific breakage. Same contract: confirm first, side effects stated, verify after.

• "Open With" duplicates — /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user && killall Finder. Resets custom default handlers to Apple defaults — user re-assigns by hand. No sudo. Verify: dupes gone.
• DNS stale/failing — diagnose first: ping -c 3 8.8.8.8 vs ping -c 3 google.com (IP ok + name fails = DNS; both fail = network, out of scope); scutil --dns | head -30 for stale VPN resolvers (flush won't fix those — point at VPN client). Fix: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. Instant, no side effects.
• Garbled fonts (across apps; one app -> app problem) — ls -lt ~/Library/Fonts | head, recently added font often culprit, remove it first. Else atsutil databases -removeUser && atsutil server -shutdown && atsutil server -ping (no sudo); still broken -> sudo atsutil databases -remove. Needs relogin to fully take.
• Frozen UI — Finder: killall Finder; Dock: killall Dock; menu bar: killall SystemUIServer — all auto-relaunch, no data loss. No audio: sudo killall coreaudiod (~2s). Never killall WindowServer — force-logout, unsaved work dies; prefer reboot.
• Runaway process (hot/loud/draining) — top -l 2 -o cpu -n 10 -stats pid,command,cpu,mem (second sample is the real one); ps -Ao pid,pcpu,pmem,etime,comm -r | head -15; battery angle: sudo powermetrics -n 1 --samplers tasks | head -40 (fails on some setups -> top is fine). Identify owner before kill: known daemon (mds* -> Spotlight above; bird/fileproviderd = iCloud sync, out of scope, say so) / user app (unsaved work — confirm saved) / helper (respawns, safe). Kill: kill -> 5s -> kill -9 ; root-owned -> sudo kill, ask. Respawns + spins again -> whack-a-mole, find the cause instead.

Rules

• Sweep = read-only (brew metadata refresh is the one allowed mutate). Change state only via confirmed actions, one at a time -> verify -> next.
• No sudo by default — sudo command -> quote it, say why, ask.
• Side effects before confirm, always: restart-required updates, hours-long reindex, handler resets, relogin.
• No snake-oil: no purge, no "free RAM", no scheduled blind cache wipes, no repair theater. A clean sweep -> "all healthy", stop — don't invent actions.
• User may want the report only — fixing is optional, never assumed.
• Boundaries: disk space/junk/leftovers/dead launch agents -> macos-cleanup; iCloud sync internals, Time Machine repair beyond status, Bluetooth -> out of scope, name it instead of improvising.

Source & license

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

• Author: pivoshenko
• Source: pivoshenko/pivoshenko.ai
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://ai.pivoshenko.dev

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