"putzen" is German and means cleaning. It helps keeping your disk clean of build and dependency artifacts safely.
Interactive TUI for cleaning user-level tool caches (~/.cargo, ~/.npm, ~/.cache/huggingface, …). Browse, mark, drill in, delete — in one screen.
In short, putzen solves the problem of cleaning up build or dependency artifacts. It does so by a simple "File" -> "Folder" rule. If the "File" and "Folder" is present, it cleans "Folder"
It also does all this fast, means in parallel (if the filesystem supports it).
putzen supports cleaning artifacts for:
| type | file that is checked | folder that is cleaned |
|---|---|---|
| rust | Cargo.toml | target |
| javascript | package.json | node_modules |
| CMake | CMakeLists.txt | build |
furthermore, it does also support:
- It can do run a dry-run (
-d) - Interactive asking for deletion
- Sums up the space that will be freed
- installation for Linux Mint
- installation for Arch Linux
TL;DR:
sudo snap install putzenTo install the putzen, you just need to run
cargo install putzen-cliNote the binary is called putzen (without -cli)
to verify if the installation was successful, you can run which putzen that should output similar to
$HOME/.cargo/bin/putzen$ putzen --help
Usage: putzen [-v] [--scores] [-d] [-y] [-L] [-a] [--no-hidden] [--hidden <hidden...>] [--] [<folder>]
help keeping your disk clean of build and dependency artifacts
Positional Arguments:
folder path where to start with disk clean up.
Options:
-v, --version show the version number
--scores show the stored highscore board and exit
-d, --dry-run dry-run will never delete anything, good for simulations
-y, --yes-to-all switch to say yes to all questions
-L, --follow follow symbolic links
-a, --dive-into-hidden-folders
include every hidden directory (== --hidden '*')
--no-hidden skip every hidden directory (overrides the default
`.worktrees`)
--hidden glob of hidden directories to descend into (repeatable).
Match is against the full basename including the leading
dot, e.g. `.worktrees`, `.{worktrees,jj}`, `.work*`.
Default: `.worktrees`.
--help, help display usage informationFor the interactive cache-cleaning TUI, run putzen caches:
$ putzen caches --help
Usage: putzen caches [--root <root...>] [--floor <floor>] [--dry-run] [-y]
interactive cleanup of user-level cache directories
Options:
--root scan root (repeatable). When given, REPLACES the built-in
defaults.
--floor caches whose newest file is younger than this are flagged
ACTIVE
--dry-run dry run: never delete, just show what would happen
-y, --yes skip the deletion confirmation modal
--help, help display usage informationHidden directories
putzen skips hidden directories by default, except for .worktrees —
projects that colocate git worktrees inside the repo get cleaned in one run.
--hidden <GLOB>— pick which hidden dirs to descend into (repeatable). Default:.worktrees. Glob is matched against the full basename including the leading dot, so write.worktrees,.{worktrees,jj},.work*.--no-hidden— skip all hidden directories (pre-3.x behavior).-a/--dive-into-hidden-folders— descend into every hidden directory (equivalent to--hidden '*').
These three are mutually exclusive.
Every putzen run earns you a little reward. The biggest single cleanup and the biggest total run ever measured are kept as a tiny gold/silver/bronze podium. Keep running it on your machine and watch your records stack up over time — show the board any time with --scores:
❯ putzen --scores
──── ★ SINGLE CLEANUP ★ ────
🥇 Gold
40.1GiB · 2026-03-14
────────────────────────────
🥈 Silver
37.9GiB · 2026-03-10
────────────────────────────
🥉 Bronze
6.5GiB · 2026-03-14
────────────────────────────
──── ★ TOTAL RUN ★ ────
🥇 Gold
60.3GiB · 2026-03-14
────────────────────────────
🥈 Silver
44.6GiB · 2026-03-10
────────────────────────────
🥉 Bronze
19.6GiB · 2026-04-03
────────────────────────────
putzen caches scans known tool-cache locations under $HOME (cargo, npm, pnpm, yarn, bun, uv, pip, huggingface, gradle, ivy, …) and presents them as a ranked list. You browse with arrow keys, drill into a cache to see its children, mark anything to delete with Space, and confirm with d + y.
Pass --root <dir> to scan a tree of your choosing instead of the built-in defaults.
Each cache gets a single number that ranks "how much disk this is wasting right now":
score = size_MiB × age_days
- size_MiB — total size of the cache directory.
- age_days — days since its newest file was last touched.
The intuition: a 5 GiB cache you used yesterday is probably still useful; a 200 MiB cache untouched for a year is dead weight, and the score keeps it visible. The right-pane heatmap bar is score / max_score — the heaviest cache in your visible set is full-red, everything else scales down through orange to green.
Score is the default sort order. Press s to cycle through score → size → age when you want to rank by a single dimension instead.
The --floor <duration> flag (e.g. --floor 14d) marks caches younger than that threshold as ACTIVE — marking them for deletion needs an extra confirmation modal so a fresh cache you're still using doesn't disappear by accident. Default floor: 7 days.
- GNU GPL v3 license
- Copyright 2019 - 2026 © Sven Kanoldt
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