clean-vm

A cleanup tool for a local development machine that reports and can remove stale loop runs, inactive Next.js or Storybook servers, browser windows, and unused worktrees. A worktree is a separate checkout of the same Git repository.

In plain words
What is it for?
Dry-running a cleanup report, removing confirmed stale loop resources, optionally closing browser windows, and cleaning unused loop-created Git worktrees.
Why use it?
It reduces leftover processes and temporary checkouts without disturbing active tmux-backed sessions.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/axeldelafosse/loop/clean-vm
Any agent
npx skills add axeldelafosse/loop --skill clean-vm
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/axeldelafosse/loop

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 45 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 905 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. 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 $0.00045 $0.00905
Opus 5 $0.00023 $0.00452
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00181
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00090

Measured 2d ago against content hash 6b0bb4161aa6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

clean-vm scanned grade A with 0 findings 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 2d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/clean_vm.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

  • clean-vm — 100% identical, 0 lines differ
.agents/skills/clean-vm/SKILL.md · 90 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 90 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Clean VM

Use this skill when repeated loop, Claude, or Codex runs leave the machine in a bad state. Start with the bundled script. It does a dry run by default and only mutates the machine with --apply.

Default Workflow

  1. Run a dry run first:
python3 .agents/skills/clean-vm/scripts/clean_vm.py
  1. Review the report. The script only targets:
  • loop manifests under ~/.loop/runs/<repoId>
  • direct loop __bridge-mcp <runDir> <claude|codex> processes for stale runs
  • loop helper processes tied to stale run dirs
  • Next.js and Storybook servers running inside stale loop worktrees
  • loop-created worktrees from git worktree list --porcelain
  1. Apply the cleanup once the plan looks safe:
python3 .agents/skills/clean-vm/scripts/clean_vm.py --apply
  1. Only close browser windows when the user explicitly wants browser cleanup:
python3 .agents/skills/clean-vm/scripts/clean_vm.py --apply --browsers

Safety Rules

  • Always inspect the dry run before using --apply.
  • Treat loop manifests in ~/.loop/runs as the source of truth for paired runs.
  • Keep any run whose manifest state is submitted, working, reviewing, or input-required and whose pid or tmuxSession is still live.
  • Never mass-kill claude, codex, or node. Kill only per PID after the script proves the process belongs to stale loop state.
  • Never remove the main worktree, the worktree containing the current pwd, or a dirty worktree.
  • The script does not auto-force worktree removal. If a plain git worktree remove fails, it reports the failure and leaves escalation to a manual follow-up.
  • Treat any live tmux session as in use even if the manifest looks stale.
  • Browser cleanup is opt-in and macOS-only.

What the Script Checks

  • repo identity via git rev-parse --git-common-dir, using the same repo id scheme as loop
  • run manifests under ~/.loop/runs
  • tmux liveness with exact session targets like tmux has-session -t =<name> plus a live-pane check from tmux list-panes
  • helper processes whose command line references a stale run dir
  • direct loop bridge MCP server processes whose run dir is stale or orphaned
  • dev servers matching next dev, next-server, storybook, or start-storybook
  • worktrees from git worktree list --porcelain

Read the full file on GitHub · 90 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 2d ago First seen · 90 lines · 45 tokens per session scan A 6b0bb4161aa6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

clean-vm is a skill published in the GitHub repository axeldelafosse/loop (277 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 45 tokens to every session and 905 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.