My Mac Apps » Revok

Summary and Features

Revok is a valuable tool for macOS users seeking to gain deeper insights into their installed applications. You can use it to scan your apps for critical metadata and then review them by their security (eg. signed vs unsigned), usage, age, CPU architecture, type (eg. Menu Bar vs Desktop), AppleScript support, native vs Electron app, and several other attributes for auditing / security purposes or just out of curiosity.

Key Features

User‑Friendly Interface

Designed with simplicity in mind: navigating and interpreting app metadata is easy and if you're ever lost, you can access the 22 page User Guide with one click

Helps Keep Your Mac Tidy

Identify unused, outdated, or potentially suspicious apps

Safe & Local

Reads documented metadata only and never writes or sends data; Revok is both signed and notarized

Export Your Scan Results

Export detailed the detail scan output (up to 25 attributes) to CSV or JSON for further analysis

CLI Support

Run scans from the command line using the bundled revok‑cli tool (unlocked with license)

Feature Packed

In addition to scanning your files, Revok can launch apps, reveal their installed location, delete them, and even integrates with File Fingerprints to calculate app checksums.


MD5 Hash: ee96d1635b992b03303316f5f2b2bf29

NOTE: Revok is Donation-ware: fully functional, but shows a nag screen each time you run it. If you find it useful, you're invited to Buy me a Coffee. In return, I'll send you a personal license key that removes the nag screen. In addition, you will also get access to a CLI version of Revok (revok-cli) that is bundled with the DMG that only runs if a license key has been entered.

Reviews

Screenshots

Revok

Scan all of your installed apps

View all of your apps or filter down to specific ones that match important attributes

Revok

Run scans from the command line

Registered users can run scans from the command line with the bundled revok-cli tool

Revok

Get insightful, app-specific details

View a large amount of interesting information about your installed apps

Revok Demo Video

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Revok only reads publicly available app metadata (via bundle keys, codesign, and Spotlight). It never modifies files or sends data anywhere. Nothing leaves your Mac. The app itself is signed and notarized.

No.

Revok gets this information from two macOS Spotlight keys: kMDItemLastUsedDate and kMDItemUseCount. These attributes can be somewhat brittle. Here's why:

kMDItemLastUsedDate

  • Not Updated Reliably by All Apps: Only applications that use Apple's standard file access APIs (like NSDocument or similar frameworks) reliably update it. Fortunately, most Mac apps use these APIs.
  • Caching and Spotlight Index Delays: Spotlight relies on background indexing, which means there's often a lag between actual usage and metadata updates. Cached values may remain stale if the indexer hasn’t refreshed.
  • Not Updated on All Access Events: For example, viewing a file in Quick Look or accessing via Terminal might not count as a "use" for Spotlight. Even just opening a file isn't guaranteed to update kMDItemLastUsedDate unless the app "touches" the file in a specific, trackable way.
  • macOS Security: Certain metadata access is limited unless the app has Full Disk access permission.
  • Dependent on Spotlight being Enabled: If Spotlight indexing is disabled for a volume or if the index is corrupted, kMDItemLastUsedDate won’t update or might be missing entirely.

kMDItemUseCount

  • Not Updated Reliably by All Apps: It’s typically only updated by AppKit-based apps (e.g., Preview, TextEdit).
    • Not Present on All File Types: Certain files simply don’t get this metadata applied, especially system files, unsigned apps, or files in excluded volumes.
  • No TTL for Data: There's no mechanism to track resets, so it's quite common for application updates and re-installs to reset the data. Sometimes this data is preserved across updates and sometimes it's not.

Revok's name is inspired by antagonist (Darryl Revok) from the 1981 cult sci-fi film "Scanners" since it perform scans, but people's heads don't usually explode when using it.

By default, Revok will scan user-installed apps (those located in the Applications folder). If you have a relatively new Mac and haven't installed more than a few apps, you won't see other pre-installed apps (i.e. those installed by Apple). To view and scan those, choose the Scan Extended App Folders option in the main window.