Uninstall GitHub Desktop on Mac

Removing GitHub Desktop does not touch your repositories: cloned projects live wherever you put them on disk, independent of the app, and GitHub Desktop only deletes a repository's local folder when you explicitly choose that option while removing it from the app's list. Confirm your repository locations and save any unfinished work; removing the Git client does not require pushing private commits. These steps cover the official download and the Homebrew cask github, which install the same app.

Check your repositories and sign-in state

Open GitHub Desktop, note any unpushed commits in repositories you care about, and confirm which account you are signed in to. Your local clones are ordinary folders on disk; removing the app changes nothing about them.

Quit GitHub Desktop and remove the app

Quit GitHub Desktop from its app menu. Open Finder, go to the Applications folder, right-click GitHub Desktop and choose Move to Trash. In the Trash, permanently delete only the GitHub Desktop app you confirmed belongs to this removal, leaving other items intact. GitHub's own uninstall procedure includes emptying the Trash; removing this confirmed item alone avoids deleting unrelated files.

Where GitHub Desktop keeps its files

Your sign-in token is stored in the macOS Keychain, not in any of the files above; Mole never reads or removes anything from Keychains, and removing the app does not sign you out of GitHub anywhere else. ~/.config/git is not GitHub Desktop's: Homebrew's zap step for the github cask only removes it when it is completely empty, because other Git installations and tools share it, so leave it alone.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il "github desktop"
launchctl list | grep -i com.github.GitHubClient
command -v github

When these checks complete without errors, no output from pgrep means no process name matched github desktop, and no output from the filtered launchctl check means no matching job was listed in the current user session. Neither establishes that every helper has stopped. For a listed ShipIt job, inspect its PID and confirm its executable belongs to this installation; a missing file alone does not prove that the job is stopped. command -v github checks for the github command line helper described below; no output means the current shell cannot find it on PATH.

The github command line helper

The Homebrew cask exposes GitHub Desktop's bundled github.sh as a github command and removes the link it manages on uninstall. This command is separate from GitHub's gh tool. A link you added yourself after an official download can remain. Run command -v github, inspect the resulting entry in Finder or with ls -l, and remove only a stale link whose target is the removed GitHub Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app/static/github.sh. Keep unrelated commands and gh. No output only means the current shell cannot find github.

Removing individual repositories

To stop tracking a repository without touching its files, select it in GitHub Desktop's repository list and use File › Remove. GitHub Desktop offers a separate option to also delete the local folder from disk, off by default; only the explicit choice to delete removes anything, so simply uninstalling the app afterward, or removing a repository from the list, leaves your cloned files exactly where they are. Uninstalling GitHub Desktop

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The github cask has no uninstall quit: stanza, so brew uninstall --cask does not quit GitHub Desktop for you; quit it first. If you run brew uninstall --cask --zap github yourself, the zap list covers every path in the table above (both Application Support folders, the ShipIt helper and its two log files, caches, preferences, and saved window state), regardless of what you select in Mole. It does not include ~/.config/git, which the cask only ever removes if it is already empty. Skip zap to retain these data folders; ordinary uninstall also removes Homebrew’s managed app and command link:

brew uninstall --cask github

Homebrew GitHub Desktop cask

What Mole lists

When you remove it with Mole:

• ~/Library/Application Support/com.github.GitHubClient, the ShipIt helper folders, caches, preferences, and saved window state are listed and selected by default (Mole treats them as this app's own data). ~/Library/Application Support/GitHub Desktop is also listed and stays unselected while Remove data and settings with apps is off, the default. Enabling the option can preselect eligible app-owned data, so untick this row to keep it. The Chromium cache folders inside it, such as Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache, are separate rows selected by default.
• Mole does not search custom project folders for repositories. Before deleting a listed app-data folder, check that you have not stored projects inside it.
• Your Keychain sign-in token is never listed or touched; Library/Keychains is protected in Mole regardless of app.

What this test covered

GitHub Desktop was installed from Homebrew and removed with a development build of Mole on September 17, 2026, as part of an 8-app cluster. GitHub Desktop's own row showed its ShipIt helper, preferences, and shared-file-list records all removed with no new leaf types found. On September 26, 2026, GitHub Desktop 3.6.6 was installed again from GitHub's own download, opened once without signing in, and removed with a development build of Mole with every row ticked; all 17 items went to the Trash and nothing from the list was left. These tests did not exercise the delete-from-disk option for a repository, signed-in credential removal, or the github command line helper.