Three open-source tools come up whenever someone asks how to get rid of old node_modules and build folders: npkill, kondo and Gigaflush (ours). They overlap, but they’re built for different people. Here’s a fair comparison, with links so you can check the details yourself.
At a glance
| npkill | kondo | Gigaflush | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | Interactive terminal UI | CLI, plus a separate GUI (kondo-ui) |
Menu-bar / system-tray app |
| Written in | TypeScript (runs on Node.js) | Rust | Rust backend, web UI (Tauri) |
| Install | npx npkill |
Homebrew, winget, MacPorts, pacman, cargo | Free download for macOS, Windows and Linux, or build from source |
| Default target | node_modules |
20+ project types | node_modules plus Rust, Flutter/Dart, Python tool caches, Swift, Gradle, Maven |
| Other targets | Yes, via --targets and profiles |
Built in | Built in; toggle types on and off |
| Detects the project | Matches folder names | Detects project types | Requires a sibling marker file (e.g. package.json, Cargo.toml) |
| Age filter | Shows last-modified, sorts by age | --older (e.g. -o3M) |
Not yet |
| Licence / price | MIT, free | MIT, free | GPL-3.0, free |
npkill
npkill is the classic. Run npx npkill in a folder and you get a live, scrollable list of node_modules directories with sizes, then delete with a keystroke. Profiles and --targets let you add other folder names, and it marks some folders as sensitive.
Pick npkill if you live in the terminal, mostly clean JavaScript projects, and want zero install.
kondo
kondo covers the most ground: Cargo, Node, Gradle, Maven, Unity, Unreal, .NET, Zig, Godot, Haskell, Elixir and more. It’s fast, available from most package managers, and has an --older filter so you can clean only projects you haven’t touched in months. Its README is refreshingly blunt that it’s “essentially rm -rf with a prompt”.
Pick kondo if you work across many ecosystems, especially game engines or .NET, and are happy on the command line.
Gigaflush
Gigaflush is for people who’d rather click a tray icon than remember flags, and who want a careful review step before anything permanent happens:
- Marker-based matching. A folder is a candidate only if it matches its toolchain’s convention and the project file is right beside it. A random
build/ortarget/isn’t touched. - Nothing preselected. You tick folders yourself, then confirm in a sheet that lists every full path and how to rebuild it.
- Checked twice. The Rust backend re-validates each folder right before deleting it and refuses symlinks and parent-directory tricks.
- Native and quiet. Menu bar on macOS, system tray on Windows and Linux. No telemetry.
It supports fewer ecosystems than kondo today. If you need Unity or .NET cleanup, kondo is the better fit right now.
Pick Gigaflush if you want a GUI that lives in your menu bar, covers the common web, mobile and systems stacks, and makes you look before you delete.
The honest answer
If you’re comfortable in a terminal, try npx npkill or kondo first: they’re free and excellent. If you want the same job done from your menu bar with a review step you can trust, that’s what Gigaflush is for. Either way, the space you get back is the same.
