use-trash-not-rm

use-trash-not-rm is a cursor rule for coding agents from cdbattags/ai. It costs 272 tokens per session, scanned C, original, MIT.

A file-deletion rule that sends files to macOS Trash instead of permanently removing them. It also explains when permanent deletion is acceptable and how remote servers differ.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it whenever coding work requires deleting files or folders, especially when working in a local project.
Why use it?
It reduces the risk of losing files through an accidental delete command. Deleted files can usually be recovered from Trash.

Cursor rule

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/cdbattags/ai/use-trash-not-rm
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cdbattags/ai

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for use-trash-not-rm

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/cdbattags/ai/use-trash-not-rm.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/cdbattags/ai/use-trash-not-rm)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/cdbattags/ai/use-trash-not-rm"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/cdbattags/ai/use-trash-not-rm.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 272 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 272 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan C 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00272 $0.00272
Opus 5 $0.00136 $0.00136
Sonnet 5 $0.00054 $0.00054
Haiku 4.5 $0.00027 $0.00027

Measured 4d ago against content hash 7290bb91810b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

use-trash-not-rm scanned grade C with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Recursive force deletehighDestructive command

rm -rf with a variable or a broad path is one typo away from removing the wrong tree.

| Permanent delete (only when necessary) | `/bin/rm` or `/bin/rm -rf` |
src/rules/use-trash-not-rm.mdc · 32 lines

What it actually says

Use trash Instead of rm

This machine has rm aliased to a warning in .zshrc:

alias rm="echo Use 'del', or the full path i.e. '/bin/rm'"

The Cursor Shell tool runs non-interactive (aliases don't load), so use the binary directly.

What to Use

Action Command
Delete files (recoverable) /opt/homebrew/bin/trash <file>
Delete directories (recoverable) /opt/homebrew/bin/trash <dir>
Permanent delete (only when necessary) /bin/rm or /bin/rm -rf

Rules

  • Default to trash — files go to macOS Trash and can be recovered
  • Only use /bin/rm when deleting generated/temporary files (node_modules, .output, build caches) where recovery is not needed
  • Never use bare rm — it will fail in interactive shells due to the alias
  • On remote servers (SSH), trash is not available — use /bin/rm there
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 32 lines · 272 tokens per session scan C 7290bb91810b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

use-trash-not-rm is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository cdbattags/ai (4 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 272 tokens to every session, about $0.0014 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (recursive force delete). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.