Frequently Asked Questions

MacSentinel is compiled as an Apple Universal 2 binary natively targeting Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, Pro, Max, and Ultra) as well as 64-bit Intel Macs running macOS 14 Sonoma or macOS 27 Golden Gate (and later). It requires zero third-party kernel extensions (kexts) and runs entirely in user-space with Mach kernel APIs.

No. MacSentinel is a user-space application that reads telemetry through public Mach kernel APIs. There is no sudo prompt during install, no root daemon, no launchd startup agent, and no third-party kext — which is why it works on locked-down corporate and air-gapped machines.

Yes. MacSentinel provides an official Homebrew tap. You can install it directly by running: brew install --cask timothybas/tap/macsentinel. To update to the latest release in the future, simply run: brew upgrade --cask macsentinel.

Unlike traditional Unix tools that average CPU percentages over several seconds, MacSentinel communicates directly with the Darwin Mach kernel scheduler using mach_thread_info() at microsecond cadence. It breaks down execution cycles across high-throughput Performance (P) cores and low-power Efficiency (E) core clusters independently. This differential telemetry allows engineers to detect lock contentions, thread thrashing, and thermal throttling in real time before macOS begins dropping UI frames.

MacSentinel provides full native localization in 9 major languages: English, German (Deutsch), French (Français), Spanish (Español), Italian (Italiano), Dutch (Nederlands), Polish (Polski), Portuguese (Português), and British English. The app automatically detects your macOS system language on launch, and you can switch languages manually at any time in Settings > General.

Yes, absolutely. Once your license is activated, MacSentinel works seamlessly offline without interrupting your workflow. Your activation token is stored securely in your macOS Keychain with an offline grace period. You can take your Mac on flights, offline fieldwork, or secure air-gapped environments with full access to all Pro features and zero telemetry pings.

No. MacSentinel contains no telemetry trackers, no analytics SDK, and no advertising identifiers. Every CPU, memory, network, and disk value stays on your machine. The only network requests the app makes are license validation and Apple-notarized Sparkle update checks — both of which can be disabled.

Yes. MacSentinel is a Developer ID signed and Apple Notarized app distributed as an Apple Universal 2 binary under the developer account of Appsinfoway. On first launch macOS Gatekeeper shows the standard verified-developer dialog — the same trusted path used by every mainstream Mac utility.

MacSentinel Pro is strictly a ONE-TIME lifetime purchase ($29). There are no monthly charges, hidden renewals, or telemetry trackers. All minor and major updates within version 1.x are completely free.

The Community Edition is free forever and includes real-time CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring with proportional treemaps and 90-second history. Pro adds the surgical ~/Library App Cleaner, the interactive disk storage treemap, the memory leak & thread diagnoser, and lifetime updates for 2 Mac seats — all for a single $29 payment.

Every MacSentinel Pro license allows simultaneous activation on 2 personal Macs (for example, your MacBook Pro and your Mac Studio or Mac mini). If you upgrade your machine or switch Macs, you can unlink old seats instantly from the in-app settings or through our self-serve web dashboard at sentinel.digital/dashboard.

Your license key is emailed to you immediately after checkout. Enter your license key once in MacSentinel while connected to the internet to verify your purchase and register your device. The app saves a secure cryptographic entitlement token to your macOS Keychain, allowing you to use all Pro features completely offline with periodic automatic background re-syncing.

Your license is tied to your purchase email, not to a specific machine. From sentinel.digital/dashboard you can unlink inactive seats and re-activate on your new hardware instantly, without contacting support or paying a transfer fee.

Payments are securely handled by LemonSqueezy, our Merchant of Record. During checkout, you can enter your business name and EU VAT / GST number for automatic tax reverse-charging. You receive an official, expense-compliant PDF tax invoice immediately by email.

Activity Monitor lists hundreds of flat, unorganized process rows where finding what's hogging your RAM or heating your CPU requires tedious sorting and manual math. MacSentinel turns raw kernel data into proportional geometric treemaps so you instantly see the relative footprint of every app and child worker. Additionally, MacSentinel provides rolling 90-second historical telemetry (so brief spikes aren't missed) and a surgical App Cleaner for orphaned Library caches.

CleanMyMac X and iStat Menus are excellent products, but MacSentinel is purpose-built differently: it focuses on real-time kernel telemetry (per-core Apple Silicon deltas, Mach physical RSS treemaps, historical traces) rather than animated menus, and its App Cleaner targets precise ~/Library leftovers such as Xcode DerivedData, Docker containers with 'dbin' flags, and simulator runtimes. There are no ads, no discount-driven upsells inside the UI, and no subscription — you pay once for lifetime Pro.

Yes — that's a core Pro feature. The Memory Leak & Thread Diagnoser samples allocated heaps and thread stacks over time to surface processes that grow monotonically, while per-core usage deltas reveal which exact threads are pegging your CPU. Both work natively on Apple Silicon and Intel.

WindowServer is macOS's compositor process, responsible for rendering every window, shadow, and visual transition. On high-resolution displays (especially scaled 4K or 5K monitors), WindowServer frequently spikes when un-optimized Electron apps or GPU canvases trigger continuous invalidation loops. MacSentinel separates WindowServer's GPU backing store allocations and dirty RSS from standard application memory, allowing you to instantly identify which background client is flooding the display compositor.

Modern macOS employs a multi-tier memory pressure state machine. As physical memory fills, the XNU kernel first uses the WKdm hardware memory compressor to pack inactive pages into RAM. When the compressed pool exhausts, macOS begins swapping to /private/var/vm/swapfile0, causing severe disk latency and UI stutter. MacSentinel monitors the mathematical trajectory slope of anonymous dirty pages, alerting you while memory pressure is still green so you can close rogue processes before swap thrashing occurs.

When you drag an application to the macOS Trash, macOS leaves behind gigabytes in ~/Library/Application Support, ~/Library/Caches, and ~/Library/Containers. MacSentinel correlates installed bundle identifiers against system storage paths to safely flag abandoned caches, crash dumps, and old Xcode simulator runtimes for one-click deletion.

No. MacSentinel only flags items that correlate to no currently installed application bundle, keeping your running apps and their data untouched. Every proposed deletion is shown to you first with a preview and per-item toggles before anything is removed — nothing is deleted without your explicit confirmation.

Yes. MacSentinel Smart Care includes specialized heuristic scanners tailored for developer environments. It identifies stale Xcode DerivedData module maps, dangling Docker Desktop raw disk layers, and multi-gigabyte Chromium GPU shader caches left behind by Slack, Discord, and VS Code. Every proposed cleanup is displayed with an interactive preview and can be safely moved to the macOS Trash first with zero risk.

Yes. Smart Care includes a custom Ignore List (whitelist). If you want to keep specific caches untouched (such as active Xcode DerivedData, Homebrew downloads, or local project caches), simply right-click the category row in Smart Care or select items and click 'Ignore'. Ignored categories are permanently excluded from one-click Deep Cleans and will never be removed. You can inspect or restore them anytime in Settings > Smart Care.

We offer a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee. If MacSentinel doesn't noticeably improve your workflow and macOS visibility, simply email support@sentinel.digital for a full refund.

Email support@sentinel.digital for licensing, installation, or refund help — we typically reply within one business day. For press, partnerships, and other inquiries use info@sentinel.digital, and for detailed pre-purchase questions our team can walk you through anything on this page.