Mac Performance Optimizer
Analyzes the current state of a macOS system and provides actionable optimization recommendations.
When to Use
- User asks to "check performance", "optimize my Mac", "why is my Mac slow"
- User wants to audit running processes, memory, or CPU usage
- User asks for system health check or resource analysis
How to Run
Run the analysis script (the path is relative to where this skill is installed):
bash "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0" 2>/dev/null || echo "$HOME/.claude/skills/mac-optimizer")")/mac-optimize.sh"Or if the skill is installed via npx skills add:
bash "$HOME/.claude/skills/mac-optimizer/mac-optimize.sh"How to Analyze the Output
After running the script, analyze the output and provide recommendations organized by impact level (HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW).
Key Metrics to Evaluate
- Memory Pressure — Check physical RAM vs used, swap usage, and compressor size.
- Swap used > 50% of RAM = heavy pressure - Free memory < 500MB = critical - Compressor > 50% of RAM = system is struggling
- Browser Bloat — Count browser processes and total RAM%.
- 50 Chrome/Brave processes = too many tabs - Running multiple Chromium browsers = redundant RAM use - Recommend tab suspender extensions or closing tabs
- Claude Code Sessions — Each session holds memory.
- 3 idle sessions = recommend closing unused ones
- Container Runtimes — Docker/OrbStack VMs consume significant RAM.
- If not actively used, recommend stopping
- Launch Daemons & Agents — Background services from unneeded apps.
- Flag daemons for apps not actively used (TeamViewer, Zoom, unused updaters) - Flag duplicate functionality (e.g., two NTFS drivers)
- Long-Running Processes — Processes with high accumulated CPU time.
- May indicate memory leaks or runaway processes - Recommend restarting if uptime is excessive
- Disk Space — Flag if < 20GB free.
- System Uptime — If > 7 days, recommend a reboot to reclaim swap and reset compressor.
Response Format
Present findings as:
- Summary table — key metrics with status indicators
- Top consumers — ranked list of what's using the most resources
- Recommendations — grouped by HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW impact
- Quick wins — copy-pasteable commands the user can run immediately
Example Quick Win Commands
# Quit an app not in use
osascript -e 'quit app "AppName"'
# Purge inactive memory (temporary relief)
sudo purge
# Enable low power mode on battery
sudo pmset -b lowpowermode 1
# Disable a launch daemon (modern macOS — do NOT use launchctl unload)
sudo launchctl bootout system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.example.plist
# Prevent it from loading on next boot
sudo launchctl disable system/com.example.service
# List and kill heavy processes
kill -TERM <PID>Important: launchctl unload is deprecated and fails on modern macOS. Always use launchctl bootout / launchctl disable instead. These commands require sudo — tell the user to run them in their terminal directly.
Always warn the user before suggesting kill — prefer osascript -e 'quit app' for GUI apps.