Tags Cleanup

Tags Cleanup Skill

Analyze and normalize all tags in the Forest knowledge base to the canonical namespace:value format.

Tag Schema

Canonical format: namespace:value — lowercase, hyphens for multi-word, colon separator, no # prefix.

Workflow

Step 1: Audit current tags

Run forest tags list --json and analyze the output. Classify every tag into one of:

• Clean: already matches namespace:value with a valid namespace
• Rename: wrong format but has a clear canonical mapping (e.g., #project/foo → project:foo, rust → tech:rust)
• Delete: adds no value and should be removed from all nodes (e.g., source:Developer, tech:unknown, category:misc)
• Ambiguous: needs human decision

Report a summary table:

Tags Audit
──────────
Total tags:    N
Clean:         N (N%)
Need rename:   N
Need delete:   N
Ambiguous:     N

Step 2: Build normalization map

For each non-clean tag, determine the action:

Rename rules (in priority order):

1. #namespace/value → namespace:value (strip #, replace / with :)
2. namespace/value → namespace:value (replace / with :)
3. Bare language names → tech: namespace (rust → tech:rust, python → tech:python)
4. Bare topic words → topic: namespace (writing → topic:writing)
5. Merge duplicates to canonical form (e.g., #project/kingdom-rpg + #project/kingdom → project:kingdom)
6. Multi-word values get hyphens (layer builder → topic:layer-builder)
7. Singular/plural merge to the more common form

Delete rules:

• Tags that carry no information (source:Developer, tech:unknown)
• Junk-drawer tags (category:misc)
• Garbage values (malformed status strings, empty bug/, empty feature/)

Present the full map to the user for confirmation before executing.

Step 3: Execute changes

If $ARGUMENTS contains --dry-run, stop after Step 2.

Otherwise, after user confirmation:

Renames — use forest tags rename:

forest tags rename "old-tag" "new-tag"

This is a bulk operation — it renames the tag across all nodes that have it. If the target tag already exists on a node, Forest merges them.

Deletions — Forest has no bulk tag delete. For each tag to delete:

1. Search for nodes with that tag: forest search "<tag>" --limit 5 --json
2. For each found node, remove the tag: forest tags remove <node-id> "<tag>"
3. Repeat until no more nodes are found

Run renames first, then deletions.

Step 4: Verify

Run forest tags list --json again and confirm:

• Zero tags with # prefix
• Zero tags with / separator (should all use :)
• Zero bare tags (no namespace)
• All namespaces are from the valid set

Report final counts.

Important Notes

• Always confirm before executing. Show the full rename/delete plan and wait for approval.
• forest tags rename is the primary tool — it's bulk and handles merge conflicts.
• forest tags remove <ref> <tag> removes a single tag from a single node. There is no bulk delete.
• Semantic search may not find all nodes for a given tag. If a tag persists after deletion attempts, report it and move on rather than looping.
• Tags are case-sensitive in Forest. Source:Developer and source:Developer are different.
• Do not touch the SQLite database directly. All changes go through the Forest CLI.

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