clean-skills

name	clean-skills
description	Compare installed skills for similarity, identify overlapping functionality, and clean up redundant skills — covers personal skills and plugin skills

Clean Skills

Compare all installed skills to identify similar/redundant ones, then interactively guide cleanup.

When to Use

• When asked to clean up or organize skills
• When checking for duplicate or overlapping skills
• After installing new skills to check for conflicts with existing ones

Process Flow

digraph skills_cleaner {
    "Stage 1: Collect" [shape=box];
    "Show skill list to user" [shape=box];
    "Stage 2: Parallel Compare" [shape=box];
    "Pairs <= 30?" [shape=diamond];
    "All parallel" [shape=box];
    "Batch by 10" [shape=box];
    "Stage 3: Report" [shape=box];
    "Any pairs >= 70%?" [shape=diamond];
    "Stage 4: Interactive Select" [shape=box];
    "Final Confirmation" [shape=diamond];
    "Stage 5: Execute Deletion" [shape=box];
    "Done" [shape=doublecircle];

    "Stage 1: Collect" -> "Show skill list to user";
    "Show skill list to user" -> "Stage 2: Parallel Compare";
    "Stage 2: Parallel Compare" -> "Pairs <= 30?";
    "Pairs <= 30?" -> "All parallel" [label="yes"];
    "Pairs <= 30?" -> "Batch by 10" [label="no"];
    "All parallel" -> "Stage 3: Report";
    "Batch by 10" -> "Stage 3: Report";
    "Stage 3: Report" -> "Any pairs >= 70%?";
    "Any pairs >= 70%?" -> "Stage 4: Interactive Select" [label="yes"];
    "Any pairs >= 70%?" -> "Done" [label="no similar pairs"];
    "Stage 4: Interactive Select" -> "Final Confirmation";
    "Final Confirmation" -> "Stage 5: Execute Deletion" [label="yes"];
    "Final Confirmation" -> "Done" [label="no"];
    "Stage 5: Execute Deletion" -> "Done";
}

Stage 1: Collect Skills

Collect SKILL.md files from two paths:

1. ~/.claude/skills/**/SKILL.md — personal skills
2. ~/.claude/plugins/cache/**/SKILL.md — plugin skills

Extract from each: name, description, full body content, file path, source (personal/plugin).

Show the collected list to the user:

Found 16 skills:
  [personal]  my-custom-skill    ~/.claude/skills/my-custom-skill/
  [plugin]    brainstorming      ~/.claude/plugins/cache/.../brainstorming/
  ...

Stage 2: Parallel Comparison with Subagents

You MUST use subagents in parallel. Do NOT compare sequentially in a single agent.

One skill pair = one subagent. Generate N*(N-1)/2 pairs from N skills.

Subagent Prompt Template

Pass the following prompt along with the full SKILL.md content of both skills to each subagent:

Read the full SKILL.md content of both skills and compare them across these 4 dimensions:

1. Purpose similarity — Do they solve the same problem?
2. Trigger similarity — Are they invoked in the same situations?
3. Process similarity — Do their workflows overlap?
4. Output similarity — Do they produce the same type of result?

Scoring guidelines:
- High similarity requires solving the same problem in the same way
- Skills covering the same topic but with different roles (e.g., requesting vs receiving) are complementary, NOT duplicates
- If one skill borrows principles from another but applies them to a different domain, score LOW
- Skills at different stages of a workflow are NOT duplicates

Respond ONLY in this format:

similarity_percent: (integer 0-100)
overlapping_features:
  - "overlapping feature 1"
  - "overlapping feature 2"
differences:
  - "difference 1"
  - "difference 2"
recommendation: "reason for removal or retention"

Batch Strategy

• 30 pairs or fewer: run all subagents in parallel at once
• More than 30 pairs: run in batches of 10

Failure Handling

If a subagent fails or returns a malformed response, skip that pair. Show the skip count in the report.

Stage 3: Report

Only include pairs at 70% or above. Never include pairs below 70%.

Sort by similarity descending. Follow this exact format:

Skills Similarity Report
14 skills · 91 pairs · Threshold: 70%

Found 3 similar pairs:

#1  executing-plans  VS  subagent-driven-development
    ██████████████████░░ 85%  ·  plugin VS plugin

    Overlap
      · Both execute implementation plans via subagents
      · Both include a code review stage

    Diff
      · executing-plans: runs in a separate session
      · subagent-driven-development: runs in the current session

    → Choose one based on whether session isolation is needed

---

#2  ...

---

Summary
  🔴  90%+   Remove candidate   0 pairs
  🟡  70-89% Review suggested   3 pairs
  🟢  <70%   Unique             (skills not in any similar pair)

Similarity Bar

20-character progress bar: ██████████████████░░ 85%

Similarity Grades

• 90%+ → 🔴 Remove candidate (nearly identical)
• 70-89% → 🟡 Review suggested (overlapping functionality)
• <70% → Excluded from report

Stage 4: Interactive Removal Guide

After the report, ask the user:

Found N similar pairs. Review them one by one? (y/n)

Ask about one pair at a time in descending similarity order. Wait for the user's response before showing the next pair. Never show multiple pairs at once.

#1  executing-plans  VS  subagent-driven-development  (85%)

    a) Remove executing-plans
    b) Remove subagent-driven-development
    c) Keep both (skip)

After the user responds:

#2  (next pair)...

Auto-Skip Rule

If the user chose to remove skill A, automatically skip any subsequent pairs that include A, and notify the user.

Final Confirmation Gate

After reviewing all pairs, always confirm before any actual deletion:

To be removed: executing-plans, my-redundant-skill
Proceed? (y/n)

Removal Actions

After the user confirms "Proceed? (y/n)" with yes, immediately execute deletion using the Bash tool.

Personal skills (~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/):

• Delete the skill directory: rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/
• Verify deletion: ls ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/ 2>&1 (should show "No such file or directory")

Plugin skills (~/.claude/plugins/cache/<plugin>/<plugin>/<version>/skills/<skill-name>/):

• Delete the skill directory from the plugin cache: rm -rf <full-path-to-skill-directory>/
• Verify deletion: ls <full-path-to-skill-directory>/ 2>&1 (should show "No such file or directory")
• Important: After deleting a plugin skill, warn the user:

  ⚠️  Plugin skill "<skill-name>" was removed from the cache.
      This skill may be restored when the plugin "<plugin-name>" is updated.
      To permanently prevent this, remove the plugin: claude plugins remove <plugin-name>
  

For each skill, show the deletion result inline:

Removing executing-plans...
  ✅ Deleted: ~/.claude/skills/executing-plans/

Removing old-brainstorm...
  ✅ Deleted: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/superpowers/.../old-brainstorm/
  ⚠️  May be restored on plugin update. To prevent: claude plugins remove superpowers

If deletion fails (permission denied, path not found, etc.), show the error and continue with the next skill:

Removing broken-skill...
  ❌ Failed: Permission denied — ~/.claude/skills/broken-skill/

Completion Summary

Review complete.

  ✅ Removed: 2 skills (executing-plans, old-brainstorm)
  ❌ Failed:  1 skill (broken-skill — Permission denied)
  Kept:      11 skills
  Skipped:   1 pair

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Correct Approach
Sequential comparison in a single agent	Always use parallel subagents
Including pairs below 70% in the report	Only include 70% and above
Only providing guidance without actual deletion	Execute rm -rf on the skill directory after user confirmation
Deleting without final confirmation	Always require final confirmation gate before any deletion
Not verifying deletion succeeded	Always verify with ls after each rm -rf
Not warning about plugin skill restoration	Always warn that plugin updates may restore deleted plugin skills
Missing source (personal/plugin) labels	Always show Source for each pair
Skipping final confirmation before deletion	Always require final confirmation gate
Showing multiple pairs at once	Ask one pair at a time, wait for response
Treating complementary skills as duplicates	Score low when roles differ
Stopping on a single deletion failure	Show error and continue with remaining skills