File Management

Perform safe file and directory operations on Unix systems using built-in tools for listing, searching, reading, organizing, and managing without external bi...

Security Scan

The skill's instructions, requirements, and behavior are internally consistent with a local Unix file-management helper — it asks for no credentials or installs and uses only builtin shell tools, though it will read user files when asked and can perform destructive operations if confirmed.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the actual instructions: SKILL.md gives step-by-step use of standard Unix/macOS utilities for listing, searching, reading, organizing, archiving and deleting files. It requests no unrelated binaries, env vars, or installs. One minor provenance note: the skill's source/homepage is unknown, but that does not create a mismatch between purpose and capabilities.

Instruction Scope

Instructions are narrowly scoped to filesystem operations and explicitly separate read-only vs write/destructive actions, with guidance to confirm destructive steps. However, the skill will run shell commands that read arbitrary paths (e.g., find ~ -name ...), which can surface sensitive files; SKILL.md does not specify how discovered data should be handled or whether results may be transmitted. This is expected for a file-management skill but is a privacy consideration.

Install Mechanism

Instruction-only skill with no install spec and no code files — lowest-risk install posture. It only relies on builtin tools and suggests optional third-party tools with explicit 'check which' guidance.

Credentials

The skill requires no environment variables or credentials, which is appropriate. Be aware that its normal operations involve reading the user's filesystem (including home) — the skill does not request secrets but may reveal them if you ask it to search broad paths.

Persistence & Privilege

always: false and no install/write behavior; the skill does not request persistent or elevated privileges. Note that model-invocation is allowed (the platform default) so the agent could call the skill autonomously; that is normal and not by itself a problem.

Assessment

This skill is coherent for local file tasks and does not request credentials or installs, but it will run shell commands that can read or (with confirmation) modify or delete files. Only install/use it if you trust the skill and the agent: (1) test it on non-sensitive directories first, (2) avoid asking it to search entire home or system paths if you have secrets there, (3) always review any proposed destructive commands before approving, and (4) do not run the agent/skill with elevated privileges (sudo) unless absolutely necessary. Also note the skill has no published homepage/source — if provenance matters, prefer a skill with clear authorship.

Safe filesystem operations using only pre-installed system tools. No external dependencies, no network access, no install.

Core Principle

Safety first — always confirm destructive operations before executing.

• mv, cp, rm are irreversible without a backup
• Prefer ls -la before touching anything
• For deletions, prefer trash (macOS) or rm as last resort

Built-in Tools Only

Guaranteed on all Unix/macOS

Tool	Purpose	Notes
ls	List files	All Unix ✅
find	Search files	All Unix ✅
grep	Search file contents	All Unix ✅
cat / head / tail	Read files	All Unix ✅
mv	Move / rename	Write ⚠️
cp	Copy files	Write ⚠️
mkdir	Create directories	Write ⚠️
rm	Delete files	Write ⚠️ last resort
stat	File metadata	All Unix ✅
du	Disk usage	All Unix ✅
tar	Archive files	All Unix ✅
xattr	Extended attributes	macOS ✅

macOS-specific (pre-installed)

Tool	Purpose	Notes
trash	Move to Trash (recoverable)	macOS ✅ preferred
pbcopy / pbpaste	Clipboard	macOS ✅
mdls	Spotlight metadata	macOS ✅
mdutil	Spotlight index	macOS ✅

Optional tools (may not be installed)

These are helpful but NOT guaranteed. Check with which <tool> before using:

• tree — directory tree view (install: brew install tree)
• rg (ripgrep) — faster grep (install: brew install ripgrep)
• fd — faster find (install: brew install fd)
• dust — better du (install: brew install dust)
• bat — better cat (install: brew install bat)

Common Patterns

List Directory Contents

# Basic listing
ls -la /path/to/dir

# Human-readable sizes, newest first
ls -lahF /path/to/dir | sort -k5 -rh

# Recursive depth
find /path -maxdepth 2 -type f

# Show hidden files
ls -la /path/to/dir

Search for Files by Name

# Find by name pattern
find /path -name "*.txt" -type f

# Case-insensitive
find /path -iname "readme*"

# Modified in last N days
find /path -name "*.md" -mtime -7

# By size
find /path -size +100M

Search File Contents

# Grep with context
grep -rn "search_term" /path

# Case-insensitive
grep -ri "search_term" /path

# Only filenames with matches
grep -rl "search_term" /path

Disk Usage Analysis

# Total size of directory
du -sh /path/to/dir

# Per-subdirectory breakdown
du -h --max-depth=1 /path | sort -rh

# Find largest files (recursive)
find /path -type f -exec du -h {} + | sort -rh | head -20

Move / Copy / Delete

# Move (rename)
mv source.txt /new/path/

# Copy (recursive for directories)
cp -r /source/dir /dest/dir

# Delete — ALWAYS confirm first
# Preferred on macOS (goes to Trash):
trash /path/to/file.txt
# Or rm as last resort:
rm /path/to/file.txt

Batch Rename (pure bash)

# Rename all .txt to .md in current directory
for f in *.txt; do mv "$f" "${f%.txt}.md"; done

# Replace spaces with underscores
for f in *\ *; do mv "$f" "${f// /_}"; done

Archive & Compress

# Create tar.gz
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /path

# Extract
tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

# Create zip
zip -r archive.zip /path

# Extract zip
unzip archive.zip

Permission Model

Read-only operations — safe to execute without asking: ls, find, grep, cat, head, tail, du, stat, file, mdls

Write operations — always confirm before executing: mv, cp, mkdir, trash, rm, zip, tar

For destructive operations:

1. Show what will be affected first
2. Ask for confirmation with exact command
3. Prefer trash over rm on macOS

Anti-Patterns (Never Do)

• ❌ rm -rf / or any recursive delete without confirming
• ❌ chmod -R 777 or permission changes that break security
• ❌ Executing downloaded scripts directly without review
• ❌ Accessing paths outside user's home without asking
• ❌ sudo operations unless explicitly requested

Quick Reference

# Where am I?
pwd

# What's in current directory?
ls -la

# Find all PDFs larger than 10MB
find ~ -name "*.pdf" -size +10M

# How much space is used?
du -sh ~/Library

# Search for TODO in code files
grep -rn --include="*.py" "TODO" ~/code/