# Tidy > Use when deciding whether something that has outlived its purpose may go — a spent plan, a retired workflow, inactive project material, a cache, a completed session, a branch. Also on "can this be deleted", "is this still needed", "clean this up". - Skill: `rubyeyedreaper/tidy` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add rubyeyedreaper/tidy` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/rubyeyedreaper/tidy/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: RubyEyedReaper (https://skillmd.com/u/rubyeyedreaper) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/rubyeyedreaper/tidy --- # Tidy > The deliberate act, never the sweep. A path arrives; a verdict comes out. Nothing here searches > for candidates, and nothing here removes anything. ## What this is not for | The task | Its owner | Why not here | |---|---|---| | **Finding** what is stale, leaked or accumulating | `leek` | It diagnoses and never remediates ([ADR-0088](../../docs/adr/0088-leek-diagnoses-never-remediates.md)). This skill performs no discovery: a directory argument is a usage error, not a candidate list. | | Deleting a branch | **nobody, permanently** | [ADR-0093](../../docs/adr/0093-branch-landedness-is-a-question-about-content.md) — the error is asymmetric and force-push is blocked, so a wrongly deleted branch has no reflex that restores it. A branch is always `refuse`. | | Retiring a workflow | `workflows` | Retirement is a lifecycle transition on a manifest, with its own enforced refusal — not a filesystem removal. | | Deciding a plan is spent | the contract | CLAUDE.md item 8: a plan is spent once its work is in living docs or code **and recorded in `CHANGELOG.md`**. This skill reads that record; it does not form the judgement. | | Sweeping session-keyed runtime state | `runtime-retention.sh` | Those classes are swept mechanically on a schedule. A class nobody declared is swept by nothing — a declaration bug, not a tidy decision. | | Deciding what to work on next | `roadmap` | Removing spent material is not planning. | | An open checkpoint under `.claude/docs/off-topic/` | `off-topic` | It looks like residue and is an outstanding obligation. Closing one is a *return* — the file is deleted by the commit that resumes the work, never by a sweep. Always `refuse`. | ## When to use - A plan doc, report, brief or scratch file looks finished and something must say whether it may go - A `leek` finding named a path and the next question is what to do about it - Before deleting anything in this repository, when the answer is not already obvious - "Can this be deleted?" / "Is this still needed?" / "Clean this up" - A branch is being considered for deletion — ask, and get told no, with the reason ## Get the verdict ```sh bash .claude/skills/tidy/scripts/tidy-verdict.sh bash .claude/skills/tidy/scripts/tidy-verdict.sh --root bash .claude/skills/tidy/scripts/tidy-verdict.sh ``` One path per run. Exit codes are the interface: `0` remove, `10` retain, `11` refuse, `12` unresolved, `2` usage. ## The four verdicts | Verdict | Means | Do | |---|---|---| | `remove` | A removal ledger records the basename — its content survived somewhere | Run the printed **dry-run** line, read what it names, then run the **apply** line. Two commands, in that order, both read before either runs. | | `retain` | No ledger names it, so this copy may be the only one | Keep it. If it really is spent, **write the ledger record first**, then re-run — the record is the durable half, the file is the disposable one. | | `refuse` | The argument is a branch | Nothing. Not now and not with better evidence. Report it and move on. | | `unresolved` | The path resolved to nothing, or no ledger was readable | Report the gap and fix what could not be read. A check that could not look is a finding, never a silence. | **Every verdict other than `remove` keeps the material**, and that is the whole shape: a wrong retain costs disk, a wrong removal costs the content. The full rules — what counts as evidence, how the basename is matched, why history and appearance are not evidence, and how to override a verdict honestly — are in [`references/verdict-rules.md`](references/verdict-rules.md). ## The removal is yours, not the script's `tidy-verdict.sh` prints commands and runs none of them. The dry-run and apply lines come from one template with a single flag slot, so they differ at exactly one token — which is what makes "dry-run first, on the same code path as the apply" checkable instead of promised. Read the dry-run's output before running the apply. A dry-run whose output nobody read is a ceremony, and the apply is the step with no reflex behind it. ## Red flags | Thought | Reality | |---|---| | "Let me scan the plans directory for stale ones" | That is discovery. Run `leek`, then bring it one path at a time. | | "The branch is fully landed, so it can go" | Landedness is computable and is not authorization. `refuse` is permanent. | | "No record, but it is obviously spent" | Then write the record. The verdict is not the obstacle; the missing ledger entry is. | | "The script could not resolve it, so there is nothing there" | It could not look. That is a finding to report, not an absence to act on. | | "I will delete it and note it in the changelog after" | The record is what survives. Write it first, or the removal leaves nothing saying where the content went. | | "`--dry-run` printed something, close enough" | Read it. That is the entire point of the pair. |