Cleanup

macOS Deep Cleanup

Run a comprehensive cleanup of caches and unnecessary files on macOS. Safety first — only delete expendable caches, never configs or user data.

Step 1: Pre-scan — show current disk usage

Run df -h / to show available disk space before cleanup.

Step 2: Run all safe cleanup commands

Execute these cleanup commands, suppressing errors for directories that don't exist. Track bytes freed per category.

User Caches

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null

User Logs

rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/* 2>/dev/null

npm / npx cache

npm cache clean --force 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.npm/_logs/* 2>/dev/null

Homebrew cleanup

brew cleanup --prune=all 2>/dev/null

pip cache

pip3 cache purge 2>/dev/null

VS Code caches

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/CachedData/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/CachedExtensions/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/CachedExtensionVSIXs/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/Code\ Cache/* 2>/dev/null

Cursor caches (same structure as VS Code)

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor/Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor/CachedData/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor/CachedExtensions/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor/Code\ Cache/* 2>/dev/null

Claude Desktop app caches

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/vm_bundles/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/GPUCache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Code\ Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Service\ Worker/CacheStorage/* 2>/dev/null

Chrome caches (NOT profile data, NOT extensions, NOT bookmarks)

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Service\ Worker/CacheStorage/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/*/Service\ Worker/CacheStorage/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Application\ Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/GPUCache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/GrShaderCache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/ShaderCache/* 2>/dev/null

Spotify cache

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Spotify/PersistentCache/* 2>/dev/null

Slack cache

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Slack/Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Slack/Code\ Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Slack/GPUCache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Slack/Service\ Worker/CacheStorage/* 2>/dev/null

Discord cache

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/discord/Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/discord/Code\ Cache/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/discord/GPUCache/* 2>/dev/null

Zoom cache

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/zoom.us/AutoUpdater/* 2>/dev/null

Docker (only if Docker is not running)

# Only run if Docker daemon is NOT active
docker system prune -f 2>/dev/null

macOS system caches (requires sudo — skip if not available)

sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null
sudo rm -rf /private/var/log/asl/*.asl 2>/dev/null

DNS cache flush

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache 2>/dev/null
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder 2>/dev/null

.DS_Store files (home directory)

find ~ -name ".DS_Store" -maxdepth 4 -delete 2>/dev/null

Step 3: Deep scan for large space hogs

After running the above, do a quick scan for any other large cache-like directories that may have been missed:

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/*/Cache* ~/Library/Application\ Support/*/GPUCache ~/Library/Application\ Support/*/Service\ Worker 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -10

If any are over 500 MB, report them to the user and ask before deleting.

Step 4: Post-scan — show results

Run df -h / again and calculate total space freed. Present a summary table showing:

• Space freed per category
• Total space freed
• Current available disk space

SAFETY RULES — DO NOT VIOLATE

• NEVER delete anything under ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, ~/Downloads, ~/Work, ~/Projects, ~/Code
• NEVER delete config files (anything named config.json, .env, preferences, settings, profiles, bookmarks, etc.)
• NEVER delete ~/Library/Application Support/*/Local Storage (contains app state)
• NEVER delete ~/Library/Application Support/*/IndexedDB (contains app data)
• NEVER delete ~/Library/Application Support/*/databases
• NEVER delete ~/Library/Keychains or anything auth/credential related
• NEVER delete SSH keys, GPG keys, or tokens
• NEVER delete git repositories or .git directories
• NEVER delete node_modules (user may need them for active projects)
• NEVER delete nvm Node versions (user manages these manually)
• ONLY delete directories explicitly listed above — do not improvise
• If unsure whether something is safe, ASK the user first

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: dancolta
• Source: dancolta/claude-cleanup-skill
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.