emsenn

Triage trash removal skill

2 min read

Summary

Create a deterministic script (stage 4 procedural skill) that removes build artifacts, editor metadata, and other non-content trash from the triage directory. Triage contains ingested Obsidian vaults, git repositories, and code projects whose content is valuable but whose tooling artifacts are not.

Motivation

Triage contains hundreds of non-content files that inflate the triage index, waste enrichment cycles, and create noise when mining for relevant content. A survey found:

  • .obsidian/ directories (AGRODAO, collapse dynamics, Delta Register, Groundhog Autonomous Zone)
  • .trash/ directories (Obsidian’s internal trash)
  • .git/ directories (nested git repos in fennel, elisp, hugo, library)
  • __pycache__/ directories and .pyc files
  • .venv/ directories (Python virtual environments)
  • node_modules/ directories
  • desktop.ini, .DS_Store, Thumbs.db
  • .log files (build artifacts, not journal entries)

Removing these is fully deterministic — no inference needed.

Steps

  1. Write a Python script at skills/clean-triage-trash/clean-triage-trash.py that:

    • Accepts --dry-run flag (default: dry run)
    • Removes directories matching: .obsidian, .trash, .git, __pycache__, node_modules, .venv, .cache
    • Removes files matching: *.pyc, .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, desktop.ini
    • Optionally removes .log files (with a --include-logs flag, since some .log files may be content)
    • Reports what was removed and how much space was reclaimed

  2. Write the SKILL.md manifest with:

    • runtime: script
    • kind: operational
    • triggers: “clean triage”, “remove triage trash”, “triage cleanup”

  3. Register the skill in .claude/skills/registry.md under Maintain.

  4. Run the script in dry-run mode to verify, then with emsenn’s approval execute for real.

  5. Rebuild the triage index after cleanup.

Done when

  • Script exists and runs without errors in dry-run mode
  • SKILL.md manifest passes validate-frontmatter
  • Skill is registered in the registry
  • Dry-run output reviewed and approved by emsenn
  • Trash removed from triage
  • Triage index rebuilt

Dependencies

  • Triage directory must exist (it does)

Log

2026-03-08 — Created. Survey of trash patterns completed: found .obsidian, .trash, .git, pycache, .venv, node_modules, desktop.ini across triage.

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