Garbage collection for your Claude Code configuration. Periodically scans ~/.claude (skills, memory, hooks, permissions, MCP servers, caches) for redundant, stale, orphaned, or low-value items, then walks the user through a confirm-each-deletion cleanup. Use when the user says "clean up my config",

Config GC — Garbage Collection for Claude Code Setups Borrowed from runtime garbage collection: periodically scan for objects that are no longer referenced, redundant, expired, or low value, and reclaim the space. The critical difference: here, collection requires a human in the loop. Never delete autonomously. When to Activate The user asks to clean up, audit, or slim down their Claude Code configuration The user complains about too many skills, noisy hooks, or slow session startup A monthly/periodic config review is due After installing a large skill pack (e.g. this repo), to reconcile overlaps with existing setup Do NOT activate for: cleaning project source code (that's refactoring), clearing chat history, or uninstalling Claude Code itself. Design Philosophy 1. Append only configs leak. Skills, memory files, hooks, and permission entries only ever get added. Without periodic review they rot silently. 2. Regular audits beat one time purges. Scan every ~30 days, propose a small batch of candidates each time. 3. Per channel strategies. Each accumulation type (skills, hooks, permissions, ...) has its own staleness signals — don't apply one rule everywhere. 4. Soft delete first. Rename to .disabled move to ~/.claude/ gc trash/ real deletion. Always keep an undo path. 5. Forced human in the loop. Every candidate gets its own [y/n/skip] confirmation. No "yes to all" shortcut. 6. Keep a log. Every GC run appends to ~/.claude/gc log.md : what was touched, why, and how to undo it. Scan Channels Channel Path Staleness / redundancy signals 1 Skills ~/.claude/skills/ / Heavily overlapping names; never triggered in recent transcripts; domain mismatch with the user's actual work; broken or empty SKILL.md 2 Memory ~/.claude/ /memory/ .md + its index Multiple index entries for one topic; contents contradicting newer entries; dates that have passed; orphan files missing from the index; sub 100 word fragments that should merge 3 Hooks ~/.claude/hooks/ + settings Scripts present on disk but referenced by no hook config; old versions superseded by rewrites 4 Permissions permissions.allow in settings.json / settings.local.json Duplicate entries; specific entries already covered by a wildcard (e.g. Bash(git push) when Bash( ) is allowed); one off grants from past experiments 5 MCP servers ~/.claude.json or project .mcp.json Servers that fail to connect; functional duplicates; long unused 6 Scheduled reminders / jobs wherever the user keeps them Fired one shots older than 30 days; jobs whose target scripts no longer exist 7 Project history ~/.claude/projects/ / Stale handoff snapshots; session records superseded by newer state 8 Runtime caches cache/ , file history/ , logs/ , shell snapshots/ Sort by size and mtime; propose items 30 days old and large Workflow 1. Scan all channels (or the subset the user names). Collect candidates with: path, channel, signal that flagged it, size, last modified. 2. Rank by confidence (broken/orphaned = high; merely old = low) and present as a numbered table. Cap each run at ~20 candidates — GC is periodic, not exhaustive. 3. Confirm one by one. For each candidate show the evidence, then ask [y/n/skip] . The user can stop at any point. 4. Soft delete confirmed items : prefer .disabled rename for skills/hooks and gc trash/<date / move for files. Permission entries live in JSON (no comments possible): back up the settings file, record each removed entry verbatim in gc log.md , then remove it from the allow array with jq . Only hard delete when the user explicitly asks. 5. Log the run to ~/.claude/gc log.md : timestamp, items actioned, undo instructions. 6. Report : reclaimed size, channels still healthy, suggested next review date. Example Scan Commands Orphaned hook scripts (channel 3) — scripts on disk that no hook config references: Redundant permission entries (channel 4) — duplicates, and specific grants shadowed by a wildcard: Largest stale caches (channel 8) — du k instead of GNU only find printf , so it works on macOS/BSD too: Soft delete with undo path (capture the date once so the log can't disagree with the directory): Removing a confirmed redundant permission entry (JSON has no comments — back up, log, then edit): Anti Patterns Bulk approval. Asking "delete all 15? [y/n]" defeats the design. One item, one decision. Hard deleting on first pass. If there's no gc trash/ copy or .disabled rename, you did it wrong. Treating "old" as "dead". A skill untouched for 60 days may be seasonal (tax season, quarterly reviews). Age is a signal, not a verdict — that's why a human confirms. Cleaning memory by truncation. Merging two contradicting memory files requires reading both and keeping the newer truth, not deleting the longer one. Touching anything outside ~/.claude (or the project's .claude/ ). Config GC never wanders into source trees. Best Practices Run after big additions, not just on a calendar: installing a 50 skill pack is exactly when overlap with existing skills appears. When two skills overlap, prefer disabling the one with the weaker trigger description — it's the one that was probably never firing anyway. Permission cleanup is the highest value channel per minute spent: redundant allow entries make security review harder. Keep gc log.md forever. It's tiny, and "when did I disable that hook and why" comes up more often than you'd think. Related Skills skill stocktake — audits skill quality ; config gc audits skill existence . Run stocktake on what survives GC. workspace surface audit — the additive counterpart: recommends what to install. config gc is the subtractive half of the same lifecycle. configure ecc — after installing skills with it, run config gc to reconcile overlaps with your pre existing setup. continuous learning — produces the memory files this skill later audits. security review — pairs well with the permissions channel.

config-gc