Mole

Use the installed mo CLI as a safety-first interface to Mac maintenance. This skill is for Mole users, not Mole source development.

Non-Negotiable Rules

1. Never replace Mole with rm, find -delete, or a generated deletion script.
2. Run every destructive workflow in dry-run mode first.
3. Show the user the exact current deletion plan before changing anything.
4. Stop after preview. Execute only after a later user message explicitly

confirms that displayed plan.

1. Never infer confirmation from the original request, prior sessions, or a

generic reply such as "continue" when the candidate set has changed.

1. Never use --permanent unless the user explicitly requests permanent

deletion after seeing the preview.

1. When evidence is incomplete or ambiguous, skip the item or stop the run.

Read [references/SAFETY.md](references/SAFETY.md) before any operation that may delete files, uninstall software, modify system state, or update Mole.

Preflight

Before any Mole command:

uname -s
command -v mo
mo --version
mo <command> --help

Continue only when uname -s returns exactly Darwin. Mole's supported mainline CLI and this skill's safety guarantees are macOS-specific; the experimental Windows branch and Linux are out of scope. Use the installed mo on PATH, never a source checkout. If the platform is unsupported or Mole is missing, report it and stop. Trust live help when flags differ without weakening these safety rules.

Route the Request

Prefer JSON and non-interactive output. Do not scrape full-screen TUI frames. Use mo uninstall --list to resolve an exact app name before uninstalling.

Preview Report

For clean, read ~/.config/mole/clean-list.txt after the dry run. For other commands, capture the complete dry-run output. Report:

• the exact paths selected for deletion,
• per-item and total sizes when known,
• whether each item is rebuildable, recoverable through Trash, or permanent,
• protected or skipped items,
• scan timeouts, unknown sizes, and partial results,
• clues that Mole only reported but did not add to the deletion plan.

Do not present Docker reclaimable space, simulator data, or other diagnostic clues as cleanup candidates unless their exact paths are in the current plan.

End a successful preview with a bounded confirmation statement naming the command, candidate count, known total size, permanent count, Trash count, and uncertainties. Do not execute in the same turn.

Execute and Verify

After explicit confirmation, revalidate the plan as defined in [references/SAFETY.md](references/SAFETY.md). If it changed, show a new preview and stop for new confirmation. Otherwise run the matching command without --dry-run, then inspect:

mo history --json --limit 20

Report previewed versus actual item counts and sizes, removed versus trashed items, skips, failures, and the audit-log paths. Never claim reclaimed space from the preview alone.

High-Risk Operations

Do not perform mo update, mo update --nightly, mo remove, mo touchid, or any --permanent operation unless the user explicitly asks for that exact state-changing action. Explain its effect first and follow the confirmation rules in the safety reference.