DiskTree on Github: The New Disk Cleaner That Hit 900 GitHub Stars in a Day

Daniel Carr, MSW

Sep 25

3 min read

DiskTree appeared on GitHub on September 24, 2026 and passed 900 stars within roughly its first day. It is a visual disk cleaner for Windows, Mac, and Linux that shows exactly what is consuming storage and lets users mark files and folders for removal from the same interface.

The idea is familiar, but DiskTree presents storage as a large visual map. Bigger files and folders occupy more space on the screen, making it possible to see immediately whether a drive is being consumed by games, videos, development files, caches, old projects, or something buried several folders deep.

What DiskTree does

DiskTree scans a directory or an entire disk and builds a visual map based on the real storage consumed by each folder.

Users can move deeper into folders, search the disk, inspect large files, identify reclaimable storage, and mark multiple items before deleting anything. DiskTree keeps the amount of currently free space visible alongside an estimate of how much space would become available after the selected files are removed.

Nothing is deleted simply because it was selected. DiskTree first presents a review screen showing everything marked for removal.

The normal removal option sends files to the operating system trash when possible. Permanent deletion is available separately and requires confirmation.

It understands more than file size

DiskTree also attempts to classify what it finds.

The visual map distinguishes categories such as media, documents, development files, Git projects, caches, package stores, build output, synced files, and AI agent working files. It can also highlight areas that may contain storage worth reclaiming rather than treating every large folder as equally disposable.

Developers get another useful detail. When DiskTree encounters a Git project, its information panel can show whether the project contains changes, saved work, or commits that have not been pushed. That gives someone a little more context before casually deleting a forgotten development folder to reclaim space.

DiskTree has already had some aggressive early development

The version number has already reached DiskTree 0.10.1 despite the project being little more than a day old.

Early GitHub reports uncovered several edge cases around deletion and Git inspection. One report showed that permanent deletion could cross into another filesystem mounted inside a selected folder. Another identified a narrow situation where checking the status of a specially configured Git project could execute its configured file monitoring command.

Both reports were subsequently closed after fixes were developed during the project's first day.

This is exactly the kind of problem a disk removal utility needs users to discover early. DiskTree performs destructive operations by design, so the quality of its protections around unusual filesystem layouts is more consequential than a cosmetic interface bug.

DiskTree works on Windows, Mac, and Linux

The project originally described itself around Omarchy and Linux, but downloadable builds are now available for all three major desktop operating systems.

On Windows 10 and 11, DiskTree can be extracted and launched directly. Mac users receive an application bundle, while Linux builds are available for both x86 64 and ARM systems.

Mac users should note that unsigned builds can trigger Apple's security warning. DiskTree's documentation explains how to open the application through macOS Privacy and Security settings when Gatekeeper blocks it.

DiskTree can also request Full Disk Access on macOS. Without that permission, macOS prevents it from examining areas containing data from applications such as Mail, Messages, Safari, and the Trash.

Why DiskTree is growing so quickly

Disk cleaners are hardly a new category, but storage usage is still surprisingly difficult to understand from the standard file managers included with desktop operating systems.

DiskTree turns the drive into something closer to a map. A 40 GB directory physically occupies far more of the interface than a 400 MB directory, so the reason a disk is full becomes visible before the user starts opening folders individually.

The project also arrives as a compact native application written in Rust rather than another enormous utility suite. Its interface is focused almost entirely on finding storage, understanding what occupies it, and removing what the user decides is no longer needed.

More than 900 stars and dozens of forks in approximately one day do not prove that DiskTree will become a major desktop application. They do show that the project has found an audience unusually quickly.

For a utility created yesterday, DiskTree is one of the strongest new GitHub software launches ElseBoard has seen this week.