Clear AI agent history and disk leftovers on a Mac

Step by step

1. See the RAM node still holds

   Files do not free RAM. Running ghosts do. On macOS, ps reports RSS in kilobytes. This sums every process whose command mentions node, and skips the search itself:

   ps -axo rss,command | awk '/[n]ode/ {s+=$1} END {printf "node RSS about %.1f GB\n", s/1024/1024}'

   A multi-gigabyte total after a day of agent sessions is the RAM side of this problem. To see which processes those are, and stop the tree safely, use the orphaned node guide. Come back here for the disk.

2. Measure every agent's folders

   These are the common locations as of October 2026. A missing path just means you do not use that agent. du prints each size:

   du -sh ~/.claude ~/.codex ~/.gemini ~/.cursor "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Cursor"

   • Claude Code keeps projects, history and settings in ~/.claude. Some installs also use ~/.claude.json in your home folder. Leave that file alone until you know you do not need it.
   • Codex keeps sessions under ~/.codex. Sign-in is often ~/.codex/auth.json. Do not delete that if you want to stay signed in.
   • Gemini CLI uses ~/.gemini.
   • Cursor uses both ~/.cursor and ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor. The Application Support folder is the editor itself, not just chat history.

   If you use another agent, find its folder before you delete anything. Aider, for example, writes history files inside the project. The names above are the common ones, not a full list of every AI agent.

3. Separate history from settings

   Safe to review, once you have opened the file and recognise it:

   • Old session transcripts and .jsonl logs under an agent's projects or sessions folder.
   • Caches: Cache, CachedData, Code Cache and GPUCache inside Cursor's Application Support folder. The editor rebuilds them.

   Keep, unless you want to sign in again and lose local setup:

   • settings.json, auth.json, and anything named credentials or config.
   • The whole of ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor. Deleting it resets Cursor.
   • Your project source. Agent history is not your repo.

4. Remove old session files you opened

   List the large files first. Twenty megabytes is only a starting line. Your interesting files may be smaller, and a cache may be larger:

   find ~/.claude ~/.codex ~/.gemini -type f -size +20M -print

   Open one path in a text editor. If it is an old transcript and you do not need it, move that file to the Trash. Replace the example path with the file you opened:

   mv ~/.claude/projects/example/old-session.jsonl ~/.Trash/

   Do not run rm -rf ~/.claude or rm -rf ~/.codex. That removes settings and sign-in along with history. The Trash is reversible. A recursive delete of a home folder is not.

5. Clear old build output

   Agents also leave build folders in checkouts you are done with. Measure a project you name, not your whole home folder:

   du -sh ~/Projects/old-checkout/node_modules ~/Projects/old-checkout/.next ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData

   node_modules and .next can be rebuilt, but a dev server you still want may be using them. Stop that process first. Quit Xcode before moving DerivedData. Then move one folder you chose:

   mv ~/Projects/old-checkout/.next ~/.Trash/

   Docker images and unused volumes are a separate pile. docker system df shows the size. Do not run docker system prune until you have read what it will delete.

6. Find files an app left behind

   Dragging an app out of /Applications does not always remove its support files. For an app you already deleted, measure the usual spots. Swap in the real name and bundle id (often com.company.app):

   du -sh "$HOME/Library/Application Support/ExampleApp" "$HOME/Library/Caches/com.example.app" "$HOME/Library/Logs/ExampleApp" "$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.example.app.plist"

   Also look in ~/Library/Saved Application State and, for some apps, ~/Library/Containers. Move a folder only after the name matches the app you removed. Preferences files are small. Application Support is where the gigabytes hide.

What Spookle does instead

The commands above are the manual version of two Spookle jobs. One is the ghosts: RAM still held, which agent left them, and a confirm before a tree is stopped. The other is disk: agent history, old build output, Big files, and an uninstaller that lists the files an app left behind.

Big files

Pick a size, such as 300 MB, and Spookle lists every file over it with its folder. Select what you do not need, confirm, and the files go to the Trash. Undo, or Command Z, puts the last batch back where it was. Spookle never deletes a file outright.

Spookle shows the review list before anything is removed, for every AI agent. See Storage and Big files.

Related guides

• Kill orphaned nodeFree the RAM the ghosts still hold
• Spookle vs Activity Monitor and VitalsWhat each one is for
• Find what’s on a portlsof, explained simply