rclone

name	rclone
description	This skill should be used when uploading, syncing, or managing files across cloud storage providers using rclone. It handles transfers to S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Dropbox, or any S3-compatible storage.

rclone File Transfer Skill

Setup Check (Always Run First)

Before any rclone operation, verify installation and configuration:

# Check if rclone is installed
command -v rclone >/dev/null 2>&1 && rclone version || echo "NOT INSTALLED"

# List configured remotes
rclone listremotes 2>/dev/null || echo "NO REMOTES CONFIGURED"

If rclone is NOT installed

Guide the user to install:

# macOS
brew install rclone

# Linux (static binary to ~/.local/bin)
d=$(mktemp -d -t rclone-install.XXXXXXXX) && mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && curl -sfL https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip -o "$d/rclone.zip" && unzip -q "$d/rclone.zip" -d "$d" && cp "$d"/rclone-*/rclone ~/.local/bin/ && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/rclone && rm -rf "$d"
# For arm64: replace amd64 with arm64 in the URL above

If NO remotes are configured

Walk the user through interactive configuration:

rclone config

Common provider setup quick reference:

Provider	Type	Key Settings
AWS S3	s3	access_key_id, secret_access_key, region
Cloudflare R2	s3	access_key_id, secret_access_key, endpoint (account_id.r2.cloudflarestorage.com)
Backblaze B2	b2	account (keyID), key (applicationKey)
DigitalOcean Spaces	s3	access_key_id, secret_access_key, endpoint (region.digitaloceanspaces.com)
Google Drive	drive	OAuth flow (opens browser)
Dropbox	dropbox	OAuth flow (opens browser)

Example: Configure Cloudflare R2

rclone config create r2 s3 \
  provider=Cloudflare \
  access_key_id=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY \
  secret_access_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY \
  endpoint=ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com \
  acl=private

Example: Configure AWS S3

rclone config create aws s3 \
  provider=AWS \
  access_key_id=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY \
  secret_access_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY \
  region=us-east-1

Common Operations

Upload single file

rclone copy /path/to/file.mp4 remote:bucket/path/ --progress

Upload directory

rclone copy /path/to/folder remote:bucket/folder/ --progress

Sync directory (mirror, deletes removed files)

rclone sync /local/path remote:bucket/path/ --progress

List remote contents

rclone ls remote:bucket/
rclone lsd remote:bucket/  # directories only

Check what would be transferred (dry run)

rclone copy /path remote:bucket/ --dry-run

Useful Flags

Flag	Purpose
--progress	Show transfer progress
--dry-run	Preview without transferring
-v	Verbose output
--transfers=N	Parallel transfers (default 4)
--bwlimit=RATE	Bandwidth limit (e.g., 10M)
--checksum	Compare by checksum, not size/time
--exclude="*.tmp"	Exclude patterns
--include="*.mp4"	Include only matching
--min-size=SIZE	Skip files smaller than SIZE
--max-size=SIZE	Skip files larger than SIZE

Large File Uploads

For videos and large files, use chunked uploads:

# S3 multipart upload (automatic for >200MB)
rclone copy large_video.mp4 remote:bucket/ --s3-chunk-size=64M --progress

# Resume interrupted transfers
rclone copy /path remote:bucket/ --progress --retries=5

Verify Upload

# Check file exists and matches
rclone check /local/file remote:bucket/file

# Get file info
rclone lsl remote:bucket/path/to/file

Troubleshooting

# Test connection
rclone lsd remote:

# Debug connection issues
rclone lsd remote: -vv

# Check config
rclone config show remote