Tech specs

Everything under the hood.

The full technical sheet for Delve: what it runs on, what it can scan, how the engine works, and what we will and won't touch on your machine. No marketing rounding. If a number is here, it's the number the app actually ships.

01 System requirements

macOSmacOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
ProcessorApple Silicon (M1 or later). Intel Macs are not supported.
MemoryAny supported Mac. Scans stream, so RAM use stays flat on huge volumes.
Download size2.1 MB disk image
Installed size~5 MB
Price$4.99 once, including deletion. 14-day free trial, no account, no subscription.
AccessFull Disk Access, granted by you in System Settings → Privacy & Security

02 Volumes & disks

If Finder can mount it, Delve can map it. Scanning follows whatever you point it at, and stays on a single volume unless you tell it otherwise.

InternalBoot SSD and any additional internal volumes
ExternalUSB, Thunderbolt, and SD / flash media
NetworkSMB, AFP, and NFS mounts (slower path, see engine)
BackupsTime Machine volumes
CloudiCloud Drive, with dataless stubs detected, not materialized
ImagesMounted disk images (.dmg) and sparse bundles
ScopeWhole volume or any single folder you drop in

03 File systems

APFSFull support, fast path, with clone & snapshot awareness
HFS+Full support
exFAT / FAT32Supported
NTFSRead support via the standard macOS driver
FUSE & networkSupported via a portable fallback when bulk metadata isn't available

04 Scanning engine

Delve pulls a whole directory of metadata per syscall with getattrlistbulk, spread across parallel workers, and falls back to fts on mounts where bulk stat returns partial sets (some FUSE and network volumes).

Fast pathgetattrlistbulk(2), ~3–5× faster than NSFileManager enumeration
Fallbackfts(3) for FUSE / network mounts that can't bulk-stat
ConcurrencyParallel directory workers feeding a shared queue
SpeedA full APFS volume scans in roughly 30–90 seconds
MemoryStreaming aggregation; footprint stays flat across millions of files
BoundariesStays on one device by default; catches firmlinks, FUSE, network mounts

05 Honest accounting

APFS files can share storage. Delve tallies every inode once and shows logical size next to on-disk size, so the number you act on is the number you'll actually recover.

APFS clonesShared blocks counted once; logical and on-disk shown side by side
HardlinksEach inode tallied a single time, no double counting
iCloud stubsDataless files detected and tagged, never materialized to read a size
Both sizesLogical (apparent) and allocated (on-disk) available in every view

06 Visualization & rendering

TreemapCushioned squarified treemap
RendererMetal 3, GPU-drawn
Performance60 Hz pan & zoom across 2M+ tiles
Other viewsSortable tree list, file-types breakdown, top-folders panel
SearchLive filtering with include / exclude rules

07 Cleanup & safety

DeleteIncluded, routed through the system Trash so it's undoable
PreviewQuick Look on any selected file with the space bar
FinderReveal in Finder from the context menu
No surprisesNothing is moved or deleted until you say so. No automatic cleanup.
Custom actionsUser-defined cleanup commands for your own workflows

08 macOS integration & accessibility

SpotlightSurface the largest files without opening the app
ShortcutsChain Delve into your own automations
Quick LookSystem preview for any file
VoiceOverFull support, with rotors for largest items, by extension, and by depth
KeyboardComplete keyboard navigation
AppearanceNative macOS 26 chrome: Liquid Glass, semantic colors, SF Symbols

09 Privacy

Delve needs Full Disk Access to do its job, and none of what it sees leaves your machine. There is no server.

NetworkNo server, no upload. The scan never leaves your Mac.
AnalyticsOptional, anonymous: version, OS, crash counts, aggregate feature usage
Never collectedFile names, paths, hashes, or extension breakdowns

10 Security & distribution

DistributionNotarized direct download, signed with an Apple Developer ID
Hardened RuntimeOn
App SandboxOff. A sandboxed app can't see most of your disk
Mac App StoreNo, by design (see sandbox above)
UpdatesIn-app auto-updates via Sparkle, cryptographically signed (EdDSA)

11 Build & languages

LanguageSwift 6
UISwiftUI
RenderingMetal 3
Bundle IDapp.delve.Delve
Version0.8.4
LocalizationEnglish. More languages planned.

Specs as of Delve 0.8.4 (June 2026). We keep this honest; if something here is out of date, tell us at support@khaosstudio.com.

Download

macOS 26+ · Apple Silicon · 14-day free trial, then $4.99 · Notarized · Auto-updating