v1.1.0 to v1.1.0

---

name: computer-clean

description: "Audit and reclaim disk space on macOS. Discovers cache hogs, dev caches, dead app data, old Downloads, dup installers, and obsolete container/VM images. Use when user says 'clean disk', 'free up space', 'computer-clean', 'cleanup mac', 'disk full', or shows ≥85% disk usage."

category: utilities

keywords: [disk, cleanup, space, cache, mac, macos, prune, storage]

metadata:

version: "1.1.0"

---

# Computer Clean - macOS Disk Cleanup

Goal: surface the largest reclaimable space on the user's Mac, classify by risk, **always confirm before destructive ops**, then execute.

## Operating principle

**Audit → Classify → Confirm → Execute → Verify.** Never skip the confirm step for 🟡/🔴 buckets. The 🟢 cache bucket can run after a single user "go".

The skill **discovers** what's actually on the user's machine - don't assume specific apps/caches exist. Run audit commands first, then classify what was found.

---

## Phase 1 - Audit (read-only)

Run these in parallel. Report top consumers per bucket.

```bash

# Volume stats

df -h /

# Home Library hot zones

du -sh ~/Library/Caches ~/Library/Logs ~/Library/Containers \

~/Library/Application\ Support ~/Downloads ~/.Trash 2>/dev/null

# Drill the heavy ones - top 15 each

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -15

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -15

du -sh ~/Library/Containers/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -10

du -sh ~/Downloads/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -15

# Common dev caches outside Library (skip silently if missing)

du -sh ~/.npm ~/.yarn ~/.pnpm-store ~/Library/pnpm \

~/go/pkg ~/.cargo ~/.gradle ~/.m2 ~/.rustup \

~/.cache ~/.docker 2>/dev/null

# Drill ~/.cache children (uv, pip, puppeteer, pre-commit, etc.)

du -sh ~/.cache/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -15

# Xcode (developers only)

du -sh ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/{DerivedData,Archives,iOS\ DeviceSupport} 2>/dev/null

```

## Phase 2 - Classify

Bucket discovered items by risk.

### 🟢 Safe (regenerable) - execute on single confirm

Standard regenerable caches. Apply only if path exists.

| Path / tool | Reclaim command |

|---|---|

| `~/.Trash/*` | `rm -rf ~/.Trash/* ~/.Trash/.[!.]*` |

| Homebrew | `brew cleanup -s --prune=all` |

| Go | `go clean -cache && go clean -modcache` (or `rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/go-build ~/go/pkg`) |

| npm | `npm cache clean --force` |

| pnpm | `pnpm store prune` |

| yarn | `yarn cache clean` |

| Cargo | `cargo cache --autoclean` (if `cargo-cache` installed) |

| Gradle | `rm -rf ~/.gradle/caches` |

| uv (Python) | `uv cache clean` (kill stuck `uv` first if locked, then `rm -rf ~/.cache/uv`) |

| pip | `pip cache purge` |

| Generic `~/.cache/<tool>` | `rm -rf` after confirming tool is regenerable (puppeteer, pre-commit, packer, etc.) |

| Old JetBrains caches (>1yr) | `rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/*<old-year>*` |

| App auto-updaters | `~/Library/Caches/*ShipIt*`, `~/Library/Caches/*.updater` |

| Xcode `DerivedData` | `rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData` (rebuilds on next compile) |

### 🟡 Review (user data, easy wins - confirm each)

- **Downloads**: `*.dmg`/`*.pkg`/`*.zip`/`*.rar`/`*.tar.gz` older than 30 days

- **Downloads**: duplicate installers matching `* (1).*`, `* (2).*`

- **Downloads**: stray data dumps (large CSVs, sample videos), abandoned project folders, leftover venvs

- **Apple Podcasts** episodes (auto-downloaded media, not subscriptions)

- **Mail attachments**: `~/Library/Mail/V*/MailData/Attachments` (re-downloadable from server)

### 🔴 Big-ticket (explicit per-item auth required)

- **Container engine VMs** - typically the largest single item. Confirm engine is unused (see Phase 4 migration check):

- Docker Desktop: `~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/vms`

- OrbStack: `~/.orbstack/data`

- Rancher Desktop: `~/Library/Application Support/rancher-desktop/lima`, `~/.rd`

- Colima/Lima: `~/.colima`, `~/.lima`

- Podman: `~/.local/share/containers`

- **Xcode** archives + simulators: `~/Library/Developer/Xcode/{Archives,iOS DeviceSupport,watchOS DeviceSupport}`, `~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator`

- **Chat / messaging app data** (Slack, Teams, Discord, Zalo, WeChat, Telegram, Signal) - user-owned history

- **Browser profiles** (Chrome, Brave, Arc, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Vivaldi, etc.) - bookmarks/sessions/extensions live here

- **iOS device backups**: `~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup`

- **iCloud / Photos library**: `~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary`

- **Time Machine local snapshots**: `tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 0 4`

## Phase 3 - Confirm

Present a single summary table (path · size · bucket) and ask:

1. Proceed with all 🟢? (default yes)

2. For 🟡: which to keep / delete?

3. For each 🔴: is the underlying app still in use? Run dependency checks (Phase 4) before approval.

## Phase 4 - Execute

### App-quit guard

Before deleting any app's data dir, quit the app cleanly:

```bash

osascript -e 'quit app "<App Name>"' 2>/dev/null; sleep 1

```

### Container engine migration (generic)

If user is decommissioning one engine in favor of another, **verify migration first**:

```bash

docker context ls # which engine is active (asterisk)

which docker # current binary

ls -la "$(which docker)" # follow symlink chain

/usr/bin/which -a docker # all docker binaries on PATH

kubectl config get-contexts # k8s contexts that may be orphaned

grep -nE 'rancher|orbstack|colima|docker' ~/.zshrc ~/.zprofile ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile ~/.config/fish/config.fish 2>/dev/null

```

After confirmation, the removal pattern is:

1. Quit the app (`osascript -e 'quit app "..."'`).

2. `rm -rf` the app's `Application Support` data dir + dotfile dir under `$HOME` (e.g., `~/.rd`, `~/.colima`).

3. `rm -rf` its `Caches`, `Logs`, and `Preferences/<bundle-id>.*`.

4. `kubectl config delete-context/cluster/user <name>` for orphaned k8s contexts.

5. `rm -rf /Applications/<App>.app`.

6. Remind user to remove any `PATH` entries from shell rc files if grep found matches.

### Downloads sweep

```bash

# Duplicates created by re-downloads

find ~/Downloads -maxdepth 1 -type f \( -name '* (1).*' -o -name '* (2).*' -o -name '* (3).*' \) -delete

# Old installer payloads (>30d)

find ~/Downloads -maxdepth 3 -type f \

\( -name '*.dmg' -o -name '*.pkg' -o -name '*.zip' -o -name '*.rar' -o -name '*.tar.gz' -o -name '*.tgz' \) \

-mtime +30 -print -delete

```

### Apple Podcasts media purge

```bash

osascript -e 'quit app "Podcasts"' 2>/dev/null; sleep 1

find ~/Library/Group\ Containers/*.groups.com.apple.podcasts \

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.podcasts \

-type f \( -name '*.mp3' -o -name '*.m4a' -o -name '*.mp4' \) -delete 2>/dev/null

```

### Files older than N months

Always **preview first** with `find … -print` before adding `-delete`. Show total size before deleting. Skip if <100MB total unless user insists. **Never** blanket-delete `~/Documents`, `~/Pictures`, `~/Movies`, or iCloud-synced paths.

## Phase 5 - Verify

```bash

df -h / # confirm space freed

docker context show 2>/dev/null # if container engines were touched

docker version --format '{{.Server.Version}}' 2>/dev/null

```

Report: GB freed, before/after free space, residual >5GB items the user declined (so they can revisit later).

---

## Hard rules

1. **Discover, don't assume.** Inspect the machine first - don't pre-supply paths that may not exist. Skip silently when paths are absent.

2. **Never** delete `~/Documents`, `~/Pictures`, `~/Movies`, iCloud Drive, or anything under `~/git`/`~/code`/`~/src`/`~/projects` without explicit per-path approval.

3. **Never** delete an app's `Application Support` while the app is running - quit it first.

4. **Never** wipe browser profiles. Bookmarks, sessions, history, extensions, saved passwords live there.

5. **Never** use `sudo` to bypass file locks. If a tool's cache is locked (e.g., `uv`, `pnpm`), kill the stuck process first.

6. **Container engines:** before deleting one engine's VM, verify the user has migrated to another via `docker context ls`, `kubectl config get-contexts`, and shell rc grep. State the migration target explicitly to the user.

7. **Surface skipped items** at the end so user can decide later - don't silently leave reclaimable space on the table.

8. **Adapt to what's there.** macOS evolves; new caches appear (LLM tool caches, Playwright/Cypress, Hugging Face, Ollama models). Apply the regenerable-cache heuristic: if it's recreated automatically on next use, it's 🟢.

## When to suggest `vd:computer-clean` proactively

End the message with a one-line offer when you notice:

- `df -h` capacity ≥ 85%

- Build/test failures with "no space left on device"

- User mentions "slow Mac", "running out of space", "can't update macOS", "Time Machine full"

Never auto-execute without confirmation.