abhiroopb/skills/free-disk-space

Free Disk Space

Help macOS developers reclaim disk space by targeting known locations where storage accumulates.

Principles

1. Targeted, not exhaustive: Only scan known problem areas. Fast execution over comprehensive scanning.
2. Safe by default: Always show commands before running. Always ask for permission. Never delete without approval.
3. Educational: Explain what each location contains and why it's safe (or not) to delete.
4. No permission changes: If files require chmod to delete, flag them but don't change permissions.

Workflow

Step 1: Survey

Run this to get a quick overview of known large directories:

echo "=== Quick Disk Survey ==="
du -sh ~/.android 2>/dev/null || echo "~/.android: not found"
du -sh ~/.gradle 2>/dev/null || echo "~/.gradle: not found"
du -sh ~/.m2 2>/dev/null || echo "~/.m2: not found"
du -sh ~/.cache 2>/dev/null || echo "~/.cache: not found"
du -sh ~/Library/Caches 2>/dev/null || echo "~/Library/Caches: not found"
du -sh ~/Library/Developer 2>/dev/null || echo "~/Library/Developer: not found"
du -sh ~/Library/Android/sdk 2>/dev/null || echo "~/Library/Android/sdk: not found"

Step 2: Categorize

Group results by safety level and present a summary table:

• Safe to delete — caches that rebuild automatically
• Use caution — may contain active work or in-use resources; ask before deleting
• Keep — should not be deleted

Step 3: Present Options

Show the user what you found, grouped by category. For each item show:

• Location and size
• What it contains
• Safety classification
• The exact command(s) that would be run

Step 4: Execute with Approval

Never delete without explicit user confirmation. Ask which categories or specific items they want to clean up, then execute only what was approved.

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Known Storage Locations

Android Development

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/.android/avd/ | Android emulators (AVDs) | ⚠️ Ask which emulators are in use | | ~/Library/Android/sdk/system-images/ | System images for emulators | ⚠️ Check which are in use by AVDs | | ~/.gradle/daemon/ | Gradle daemon logs | ✅ Yes | | ~/.gradle/.tmp/ | Gradle temp files | ✅ Yes | | ~/.gradle/build-scan-data/ | Build analytics | ✅ Yes | | ~/.gradle/wrapper/ | Gradle versions | ❌ Keep - stores Gradle distributions | | ~/Library/Caches/Google/AndroidStudio*/ | Android Studio caches | ⚠️ Keep current version, delete old | | ~/Library/Application Support/Google/AndroidStudio*/ | AS settings | ⚠️ Usually small, keep |

Cleanup commands:

# Stop Gradle daemons before cleaning
gradle --stop

# Clean Gradle temp/logs (safe)
rm -rf ~/.gradle/daemon
rm -rf ~/.gradle/.tmp
rm -rf ~/.gradle/build-scan-data

# List AVDs with sizes
du -sh ~/.android/avd/*.avd | sort -hr

# Check which system images are in use
grep -h "image.sysdir" ~/.android/avd/*.avd/config.ini

iOS Development

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ | Xcode build artifacts | ✅ Yes - rebuilds as needed | | ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/ | iOS Simulators | ⚠️ Ask which are in use | | ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives/ | App archives | ⚠️ May want to keep recent | | ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods/ | CocoaPods cache | ✅ Yes |

Cleanup commands:

# Clean Xcode derived data
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/*

# List simulators (requires Xcode)
xcrun simctl list devices

# Clean CocoaPods cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods

JetBrains IDEs

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/ | IDE caches (IntelliJ, Fleet, etc.) | ⚠️ Keep current version |

Cleanup commands:

# List JetBrains caches by size
du -d 1 -h ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains | sort -hr

# Delete old versions (example - adjust versions)
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2024.*
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/Fleet

Python

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/.cache/uv/ | uv package manager cache | ✅ Yes | | ~/.cache/pip/ | pip cache | ✅ Yes | | ~/.pyenv/versions/ | Python versions | ⚠️ Ask which are in use |

Cleanup commands:

rm -rf ~/.cache/uv
rm -rf ~/.cache/pip

Rust

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/.cargo/registry/ | Cargo package cache | ✅ Yes | | ~/.rustup/toolchains/ | Rust toolchains | ⚠️ Ask which are in use |

Node.js

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/.npm/ | npm cache | ✅ Yes | | ~/Library/Caches/Yarn/ | Yarn cache | ✅ Yes |

Cleanup commands:

rm -rf ~/.npm
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Yarn

Homebrew

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/ | Downloaded packages | ✅ Yes |

Cleanup commands:

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
# Or use: brew cleanup --prune=all

Bazel

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/Library/Caches/bazel*/ | Bazel build cache | ✅ Yes | | ~/.cache/bazel*/ | Bazel cache (alternate location) | ✅ Yes |

Cleanup commands:

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/bazel*
rm -rf ~/.cache/bazel*

Git Repositories

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | <repo>/build/ | Build outputs in repos | ✅ Yes | | <repo>/.gradle/ | Project Gradle cache | ✅ Yes | | *-worktrees/ directories | Git worktrees | ⚠️ Check for uncommitted work |

Cleanup commands:

# List all worktrees for a repo
git worktree list

# Clean build outputs (from repo root)
./gradlew clean

# Compact git history (fast - usually sufficient)
git gc --prune=now

# Compact git history (slow - maximum compression)
# Only use --aggressive after major cleanups (deleted branches, force pushes)
# Can take 30+ minutes on large repos
git gc --aggressive --prune=now

git gc explained:

• git gc — Packs loose objects, removes unreachable objects, compresses repo
• --prune=now — Immediately remove unreachable objects (default waits 2 weeks)
• --aggressive — Recomputes all deltas with max compression. Much slower but smaller result. Only worth it after significant history changes.

System Caches

| Location | Description | Safe to Delete? | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | ~/Library/Caches/Spotify/ | Music cache | ✅ Yes | | ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/ | Browser cache | ✅ Yes (may slow browsing briefly) | | ~/.Trash/ | Trash | ✅ Yes |

Cleanup commands:

# Empty trash
rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

# Clear app caches (check sizes first)
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/Spotify 2>/dev/null
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/Firefox 2>/dev/null

du Cheat Sheet

du [options] [path]

# Key options:
-h    # Human readable (KB, MB, GB)
-s    # Summary (total only)
-d N  # Depth: how many levels deep to report

# Common patterns:
du -sh /path          # Total size of one directory
du -sh /path/*        # Size of each item in directory
du -d 1 -h /path      # One level deep with sizes
du -sh * | sort -hr   # Current dir, sorted largest first