Config

What is Config?

~/.config is a user-level configuration directory in your home folder. Many command-line tools, developer utilities, and cross-platform apps use it to store settings, profiles, and small support files outside the traditional macOS Library folders. Users often encounter this folder when cleaning up disk space, migrating accounts, or troubleshooting app behavior. Its contents can include app-specific subfolders, text-based configuration files, authentication settings, and tool preferences that affect how software runs in Terminal or desktop workflows. On macOS, this folder is not part of the core system, but it may still be important for software you actively use, especially developer tools and utilities that follow XDG-style config locations.

Safety overview

Status: Mostly safe

The folder itself is a normal user-space location and is not a macOS system file. Deleting items from ~/.config can reset app and tool settings, sign you out of some utilities, remove saved profiles, or break custom workflows until the affected software recreates its configuration. Because many unrelated apps may store data here, check the names of subfolders before removing anything and avoid deleting entries you do not recognize if you still use the related tool.

Recommendation: Keep ~/.config if you use developer tools, Terminal utilities, or apps that rely on custom settings stored there. If you are cleaning up, remove only the specific subfolders for software you no longer use, rather than deleting the entire directory at once. If a tool has been behaving strangely, deleting that tool's config folder may help reset it, but expect to reconfigure it afterward.

File path

• ~/.config

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