vault-cleanup-auditor

Overview of vault-cleanup-auditor skill

What vault-cleanup-auditor does

The vault-cleanup-auditor skill audits an Obsidian vault in Claude Code and produces a dated cleanup report. It looks for stale drafts, incomplete notes, duplicate filenames, and empty folders, then turns those findings into a prioritized review you can act on quickly.

Who it is for

Use the vault-cleanup-auditor skill if you manage a growing personal or team vault and need a repeatable cleanup pass instead of a one-off prompt. It is especially useful for people who already have a vault structure but want a fast, low-friction way to spot drift, clutter, and content that was never finished.

Why it is different

This is not a generic “organize my notes” prompt. The vault-cleanup-auditor guide is built around a fixed audit workflow, an explicit intake requirement, and a saved report file. That makes it better for recurring maintenance and Workflow Automation than for subjective note restructuring.

How to Use vault-cleanup-auditor skill

vault-cleanup-auditor install and setup

Install the vault-cleanup-auditor skill in Claude Code, then point it at the root of your Obsidian vault. The core input it needs is the absolute path to the vault, not a folder inside it. If you skip that, the skill is designed to ask for the missing path before it runs.

How to trigger the audit

A practical vault-cleanup-auditor usage prompt is simple and specific:
Run the Vault Cleanup Auditor skill against my vault at /path/to/vault.

That is usually enough because the skill already knows what to check. If your vault has unusual subfolders or you only want a review of a subset, state that up front so the audit does not over- or under-scan.

What to read first

For vault-cleanup-auditor install review, start with SKILL.md and SKILL-OC.md. In SKILL.md, focus on the intake phase and the four checks so you understand exactly what will happen. Also inspect the file tree in the GitHub repo for supporting paths, but this skill has no extra rules/, resources/, or scripts to interpret.

Best input for better output

The best vault-cleanup-auditor usage inputs include a clean absolute path and a clear expectation for what “messy” means in your workflow. For example, specify whether drafts older than 30 days should be treated as stale, whether archived content should be ignored, and whether duplicate filenames across sections are acceptable. Those details reduce false positives and make the report more actionable.

vault-cleanup-auditor skill FAQ

Is vault-cleanup-auditor only for Obsidian?

Yes, the skill is centered on an Obsidian vault layout and assumes local markdown files. It can still be useful for other folder-based note systems, but the built-in checks are tuned to Obsidian-style content and may need adaptation.

Is this better than a normal prompt?

Usually yes, if you want the same audit every time. A normal prompt can ask for cleanup ideas, but vault-cleanup-auditor adds a fixed scan pattern, required input handling, and a saved report, which makes results more repeatable and easier to compare month to month.

Do beginners need to know the repo structure?

No, but beginners should read the short instruction sections before running it. The main thing to understand is that vault-cleanup-auditor will not start without the vault path, and it expects a real vault root so the checks can traverse the right folders.

When should I not use it?

Do not use vault-cleanup-auditor if you want broad editorial rewrites, content strategy advice, or human-style judgment about note quality. It is a cleanup auditor, not a writing assistant, and it is most valuable when the question is “what is stale, broken, duplicated, or empty?”

How to Improve vault-cleanup-auditor skill

Give it a cleaner scope

The biggest way to improve vault-cleanup-auditor results is to define the vault boundary clearly. If your vault contains archives, synced backups, templates, or generated content, say so explicitly. That helps the skill avoid treating intentional storage as clutter.

Tune the audit criteria

If the default checks are too loose or too strict, refine the rule interpretation in your request. For example, tell it whether “stale” means 30 days or 90 days, whether empty folders under a template system should be ignored, and whether duplicate filenames matter only within one project or across the whole vault.

Improve the first report

The first output is most useful when your vault path is correct and your note conventions are consistent. If you see noisy results, the problem is often input hygiene: files without headings, mixed draft statuses, or duplicate names that are actually intentional. Fix the convention or describe the exception, then rerun the vault-cleanup-auditor guide.

Iterate on what matters most

After the first run, review the highest-priority findings before changing the skill itself. Most users care most about stale drafts and duplicate filenames, because those create the most maintenance drag. If the report misses something important, update your instructions with one concrete example rather than asking for a broader “better audit.”