DuckDisk

Product Introduction

1. Definition: DuckDisk is a free, open-source macOS storage analyzer and disk space management utility built with the Tauri framework, Rust, and React. It falls into the technical categories of system utility software, file system analysis tools, and cloud storage management platforms.
2. Core Value Proposition: DuckDisk exists to provide macOS users with a fast, informative, and privacy-conscious way to analyze disk usage across local drives, cloud storage (OneDrive, Google Drive), and remote SSH servers. Its primary value is delivering actionable, table-first data visualization—inspired by the efficiency of Windows' WizTree—instead of relying solely on slow, colorful treemaps, enabling users to quickly identify and manage space-consuming files.

Main Features

1. Multi-Source Storage Analysis: DuckDisk performs comprehensive storage analysis across heterogeneous sources. For local disks and folders, it uses the pdu scanner for rapid file system traversal. For OneDrive and Google Drive, it performs metadata-only analysis using the Microsoft Graph API and Google Drive API respectively, meaning file contents are never downloaded, ensuring fast and bandwidth-efficient cloud scans. SSH analysis is executed via the system's native ssh command, leveraging existing keys and ~/.ssh/config for authentication.
2. Dense, Table-First Tree View: The core interface is a virtualized, columnar tree view that simultaneously displays folder size, allocated space on disk, percentage of parent folder size, item counts (files and folders), and file-type summaries. This design prioritizes information density and rapid scanning, allowing users to drill down into directories without losing context from other data columns, a significant workflow improvement over single-view visualizations.
3. Incremental Cloud Refresh & Managed Cleanup: For cloud services, DuckDisk implements intelligent caching and delta updates. OneDrive scans utilize Microsoft Graph delta queries for fast incremental refreshes. Both OneDrive and Google Drive integrations allow for recoverable cleanup by moving user-selected items to the provider's native Trash or Recycle Bin, a safer alternative to permanent deletion. This feature uses OAuth with tokens stored securely in the macOS Keychain.

Problems Solved

1. Pain Point: Traditional macOS disk analyzers like DaisyDisk or GrandPerspective often use visualization-first approaches (treemaps) that can be slow to render and less efficient for pinpointing specific large files or folders through raw data. Users seeking a data-table-centric experience similar to the acclaimed Windows utility WizTree have had limited native options on macOS.
2. Target Audience: The primary user personas include power users, developers, system administrators, and IT professionals who manage multi-terabyte drives or hybrid storage environments (local + cloud). It also serves general users frustrated by "Other" or "System Data" storage who want a more powerful, transparent tool than macOS's built-in Storage Management.
3. Use Cases: Essential scenarios include: diagnosing sudden disk space depletion on a MacBook; auditing and cleaning up project folders or developer environments; managing storage quotas on connected OneDrive or Google Drive accounts without downloading data; and analyzing disk usage on remote development or server environments via SSH.

Unique Advantages

1. Differentiation: Unlike many macOS storage apps that are visualization-heavy, DuckDisk adopts a "WizTree-style" workflow, prioritizing a sortable, multi-column table view. Compared to other tools, its direct integration of major cloud services (OneDrive, Google Drive) and SSH into a single, unified analysis interface is a significant differentiator, removing the need for separate workflows or tools for local and remote storage.
2. Key Innovation: The key technical innovation is its architecture that unifies local file system scanning, cloud metadata APIs, and remote SSH analysis into a single, cohesive Tauri-based application. The use of Rust for core scanning operations ensures performance and safety, while the metadata-only approach for cloud scanning is a privacy-preserving innovation that provides insights without the bandwidth and privacy cost of downloading content.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is DuckDisk safe for scanning my Google Drive and OneDrive? Yes, DuckDisk uses official OAuth flows and only requests the necessary permissions to read file metadata (size, name, path). It does not download or access your file contents for analysis. For cleanup actions, it uses the official APIs to move items to trash, not delete them permanently.
2. What is the difference between the Mac App Store version and the direct download? The Mac App Store version is sandboxed for enhanced security but is limited to scanning user-selected folders and cannot perform full-disk scans or use the system SSH client. The direct-download version from GitHub can request Full Disk Access for complete system analysis and uses your existing system ssh configuration for remote scans.
3. How does DuckDisk scan so quickly compared to other apps? For local scans, DuckDisk leverages the efficient pdu scanner. For cloud scans, speed comes from scanning only metadata (file listings) without downloading content and using incremental update APIs (like Microsoft Graph delta links) after the first scan, which only fetches changes.
4. Can DuckDisk delete files from my drives? Yes, but with safeguards. For local files, it can move items to the macOS Trash. For OneDrive and Google Drive, it moves items to the service's own recycle bin. For SSH, it requires an additional confirmation before permanent deletion within the scanned path. It has no ability to permanently delete cloud files directly.
5. Does DuckDisk work on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) Macs? Yes, DuckDisk is a universal binary compiled for both arm64 (Apple Silicon) and x86_64 (Intel) architectures, ensuring native performance and compatibility on all modern Macs.