carwash

Reclaim disk space across every project on your machine. carwash finds build outputs, dependency installs, virtualenvs and caches in 40 ecosystems, tells you which ones are safe to delete, and cleans them. It also checks dependencies for updates and vulnerabilities and runs project tasks, all from one TUI or a scriptable CLI.

Point it at a single package, a monorepo, or a directory holding hundreds of repositories in mixed languages:

carwash ~/work            # interactive
carwash scan ~/work       # what could be freed, largest first
carwash clean ~/work --older-than 30d

What it finds

	Examples
Build outputs	target/, build/, dist/, .next/, DerivedData/, _build/, zig-out/, bin/ + obj/
Dependency installs	node_modules/, vendor/, Pods/, deps/, .gradle/, renv/library/
Environments	.venv/, .tox/, .direnv/, .pixi/, conda environments
Tool caches	__pycache__/, .pytest_cache/, .turbo/, .parcel-cache/, .terraform/, .godot/
Global caches	Cargo registry, old Rust toolchains, npm/pnpm/yarn/bun, pip/uv/poetry, Go modules, Gradle, Maven, Homebrew, Xcode DerivedData, iOS device support, simulators, and more

Projects are recognised by their manifests (Cargo.toml, package.json, pyproject.toml, go.mod, pom.xml, *.csproj, Package.swift, pubspec.yaml, mix.exs, CMakeLists.txt, *.uproject, project.godot...). Directories that are unmistakable on their own are found without a manifest too: a CACHEDIR.TAG, a pyvenv.cfg, a CMake or Meson build tree, a Cargo target/ whose Cargo.toml is gone. Run carwash ecosystems for the full list.

Safety

Deleting the wrong directory is the one mistake a cleaner cannot make, so every artifact gets a status before anything is selected:

• protected: git tracks files inside it (a committed vendor/ or dist/). Never deleted.
• review: a generic name like build or bin that nothing confirms as generated, or one git reports as untracked rather than ignored. Needs --include-review or a look in the TUI.
• recent: modified in the last 7 days. Held back by default so you don't delete what you're using.
• ready: everything else.

Each target is re-checked just before deletion (still a directory, not a symlink, inside the scanned root, no .git inside). Permanent deletion renames the directory to a staging name first, which is instant and atomic, then removes it in parallel. An interrupted clean leaves a .carwash-trash-* directory that the next scan offers to finish. --trash moves to the system trash instead.

Sizes are allocated blocks, not apparent sizes, with hard links counted once. "Reclaimable" only counts data whose every link is inside the artifact, so a pnpm node_modules hard-linked into the global store shows how much deleting it would actually free.

Install

cargo install --locked carwash

Or from a checkout: cargo install --locked --path crates/carwash. Requires Rust 1.88 or newer.

The TUI

Run carwash [PATH]. Four tabs, switched with 1 to 4:

1. Reclaim: every project and artifact as a tree (or flat by project or artifact, Tab), sorted by size. Mark with Space, press d to review and clean. / filters with fuzzy text plus facets: eco:rust,node kind:deps size>1g age>30d is:ready.
2. Tasks: scripts and targets from package.json, deno.json, justfile, Makefile, Taskfile, mise, Poe/PDM, Composer and Cargo aliases, plus standard commands per ecosystem. Enter runs the task in a real terminal inside the TUI; mark several projects to run it in all of them.
3. Updates: outdated and vulnerable dependencies for Rust, JavaScript, Python and Go. u updates within your requirements, U upgrades to latest (and edits manifests). Projects are re-checked after the update finishes.
4. Caches: global caches outside any project. d (twice) runs the tool's own prune command when it is installed, or deletes the directory when that is safe. Sizes are remembered, so the tab opens instantly. A cache is measured again when the top of its tree has changed (entries added or removed there), after a week otherwise, or when you press r.

p scans another folder without restarting: type a path (Tab completes, ~ and relative paths work) and press Enter. Running tasks keep running.

The footer shows the current tab's keys on the left and the keys that work in any tab on the right. Hover over a key for what it does (for d, exactly what it will delete or run), click it to run it, or click a tab to switch. ? lists every key. t cycles themes. The wheel scrolls every tab; in Reclaim, clicking selects a row and clicking it again expands it.

The CLI

Command
carwash scan [PATH]	List reclaimable artifacts. --json, --sort, --limit, filters below
carwash clean [PATH]	Show the plan, confirm, delete. --dry-run, --yes, --trash, --include-review, --include-recent
carwash tasks [PATH]	Tasks per project. --all for every project's list
carwash run TASK [PATH]	Run a task in every project that has it. -j N, --filter GLOB, --fail-fast, --dry-run
carwash outdated [PATH]	Outdated and vulnerable dependencies. --exit-code for CI, --no-vulns, --refresh
carwash caches	Global caches and their sizes
carwash caches clean ID...	Clean caches; a parent id such as rustup-toolchains selects all its children
carwash ecosystems	Recognised ecosystems
carwash history	Space reclaimed so far
carwash completions SHELL	Shell completions

Filters shared by scan and clean: --min-size 500MB, --older-than 3mo, --kind build,deps,cache,env,other,leftover, -e rust,node, --exclude PATH, --max-depth N, --hidden, --cross-fs. Every listing command takes --json.

Configuration

~/.config/carwash/config.toml (or $CARWASH_CONFIG). Every key is optional:

[scan]
exclude = ["~/work/archive"]   # never entered
default_excludes = true        # also skip ~/Library, ~/Pictures, ~/go/pkg/mod...
include_hidden = false         # hidden directories are entered inside projects either way
same_filesystem = true
threads = 0                    # 0: derived from the CPU count

[clean]
mode = "permanent"             # or "trash"
recent_days = 7

[updates]
cache_hours = 6                # reuse registry lookups
vulnerabilities = true         # query OSV

[ui]
theme = "gestalt"              # gestalt, latte, nord, dracula, ansi
icons = "unicode"              # or ascii

Ecosystems and global caches are data, not code. Add your own, or replace a built-in by reusing its id, in ~/.config/carwash/ecosystems.toml and ~/.config/carwash/caches.toml. The built-in files document every field: builtin.toml, caches.toml.

carwash keeps a size cache and registry cache in ~/.cache/carwash, history in ~/.local/share/carwash, and TUI logs in ~/.local/state/carwash/logs. CARWASH_HOME puts all of it under one directory.

How it works

The workspace has two crates. carwash-core is the engine and has no UI code: parallel discovery that reads names only and never descends into artifacts, batched git inspection (git ls-files, git check-ignore --stdin), parallel measurement, the safety policy, and the cleaner. carwash is the CLI and a ratatui TUI built as an Elm-style update loop, with tasks running in pseudo-terminals.

License

MIT