SafeEject: find out what is keeping your Mac’s external drive busy

Careo Limited — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 11:37:42 +0000

Finder says your external drive is still in use, but it does not tell you which process is responsible. A terminal, development server or file watcher may still be holding it open after you close the window you were working in.

We built SafeEject to make that easier to investigate. It is a free, open-source macOS utility with a local browser dashboard and a command-line interface.

Demo mode with sample disks and processes.

See the process and the reason

SafeEject uses lsof to identify processes holding a volume, then explains what it finds in plain language. A shell may have its working directory on the disk, a watcher may be reading a folder, or an application may have an open database.

It also shows process ancestry where available, helping you connect a background process to the terminal or agent that started it.

Choose an appropriate next step

The suggested action depends on the reason. For a shell working directory, changing to another folder may be enough. For an open database, closing the application normally gives it a chance to finish writing.

The dashboard supports quitting processes and ejecting a drive. Force quitting is offered separately for processes that refuse to close. macOS services such as Spotlight are left alone by the bulk quit action.

Run it locally

SafeEject runs on macOS with Python 3.9 or later and uses only the Python standard library. The dashboard listens on 127.0.0.1; the application makes no outgoing connections.

You can install it through Homebrew or run it from source. A demo mode lets you explore the interface using sample disks and processes.

Scope and feedback

Process visibility depends on your permissions, so system processes or processes owned by other users may not appear. Failed or partial scans are reported as failures.

Source code and installation instructions

We’d welcome feedback from developers who work from external drives, especially on whether the process explanations make troubleshooting easier.

Context Guardian: helping coding agents understand the impact of a change

Careo Limited — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 11:13:13 +0000

A coding agent updates a shared module and completes the task. The edit looks reasonable, but another feature depends on that module. Does that feature need checking too?

We built Context Guardian to make those connections easier to identify during agent-assisted development.

It combines a command-line tool with an agent skill to connect code changes with feature documentation, project rules and validation commands.

From a file change to affected features

Consider a checkout module that is also imported by a profile screen. A change to that module can require attention in both places.

Context Guardian builds a map of the code and uses it alongside project configuration to select the relevant features. Its report points the agent to their notes and configured checks.

For mobile projects, it can also flag corresponding iOS and Android files that may need a matching update.

How it fits into development

Before a task, Context Guardian selects the context relevant to the work. When the task finishes, it compares the changes against the application’s map and reports areas that need attention.

Claude Code and Gemini CLI use hooks for automatic checks. Codex, Cursor and GitHub Copilot can follow the skill and instructions in AGENTS.md.

The analysis engine runs locally in Python, with no model calls or telemetry. It produces compact reports for the agent to read.

Project knowledge stays with the repository

Feature descriptions, project rules and validation commands live in .app-context/, alongside a generated code map.

Teams maintain the curated documentation, while Context Guardian regenerates the map from the code. This gives the analysis both code relationships and application-specific context.

Current scope and getting started

Context Guardian is in alpha. We developed it around React Native and Expo applications, with import and call resolution for TypeScript, JavaScript and Python. Other languages receive lighter, pattern-based analysis.

Its usefulness depends on the project configuration and the relationships it can resolve. Tests and code review remain part of the workflow.

Visit the repository for installation and setup

We’d welcome feedback from developers trying it on existing applications, particularly where setup is unclear, a dependency is missed or a report includes too much context.

DEV Community: Careo Limited