| name | cleanup-cspell-words |
| description | Prunes unused Code Spell Checker entries in .vscode/settings.json by running a TypeScript maintenance script (not by searching the repo in-chat). Use when the user wants to clean cSpell.words, remove stale spell-check ignores, or reduce the dictionary list. |
Clean up cSpell.words
Goal
Remove entries from "cSpell.words" in .vscode/settings.json that do not appear anywhere in repository file contents (case-insensitive). The settings file itself is excluded from the search so words that only exist in that list are dropped.
Do this (minimize tokens)
Do not manually grep the whole repo in the agent. Run the script from anywhere inside the clone (it resolves the root with git rev-parse --show-toplevel):
pnpm cleanup:cspell
Preview changes without writing:
pnpm cleanup:cspell -- --dry-run
After a write, format if needed:
pnpm exec biome check --write .vscode/settings.json
Portable execution (no repo devDependency)
The script lives next to this skill: cleanup-cspell-words.mts. The .mts extension makes Node treat it as ESM without changing the repo’s package.json "type".
- Node ≥22.6 (see root
package.json engines.node): run with built-in type stripping:
node --experimental-strip-types ./.cursor/skills/cleanup-cspell-words/cleanup-cspell-words.mts
- Older Node or if stripping fails: one-off runner via npx (no
package.json entry required):
npx --yes tsx ./.cursor/skills/cleanup-cspell-words/cleanup-cspell-words.mts
Pass --dry-run as a normal argument to either command.
Implementation
- Repository root:
git rev-parse --show-toplevel (fallback: walk upward until .git exists). Requires a git working tree.
- Respecting ignores:
rg uses repo ignore rules by default. The Node path uses git ls-files --cached --others --exclude-standard so unignored tracked and untracked files match .gitignore / exclude rules. If that fails, it walks the tree and skips single-segment directory names parsed from .gitignore (lines without *, ?, /, or !) plus .git, and skips a few path substrings for patterns the simple parser cannot represent (e.g. __vis__/local).
Rules of thumb
- Re-run when the user trims dead terminology or after large refactors.
- If a word is a future or rare intentional allowlist entry that is not yet in the tree, the script will remove it — restore it manually or add a real usage first.
