File Organizer

This skill acts as your personal organization assistant, helping you maintain a clean, logical file structure across your computer without the mental overhead of constant manual organization.

When to Use This Skill

Your Downloads folder is a chaotic mess
You can't find files because they're scattered everywhere
You have duplicate files taking up space
Your folder structure doesn't make sense anymore
You want to establish better organization habits
You're starting a new project and need a good structure
You're cleaning up before archiving old projects

What This Skill Does

Analyzes Current Structure: Reviews your folders and files to understand what you have
Finds Duplicates: Identifies duplicate files across your system
Suggests Organization: Proposes logical folder structures based on your content
Automates Cleanup: Moves, renames, and organizes files with your approval
Maintains Context: Makes smart decisions based on file types, dates, and content
Reduces Clutter: Identifies old files you probably don't need anymore

How to Use

From Your Home Directory

cd ~

Then run Claude Code and ask for help:

Help me organize my Downloads folder

Find duplicate files in my Documents folder

Review my project directories and suggest improvements

Specific Organization Tasks

Organize these downloads into proper folders based on what they are

Find duplicate files and help me decide which to keep

Clean up old files I haven't touched in 6+ months

Create a better folder structure for my [work/projects/photos/etc]

Instructions

SAFETY WARNING: This skill involves moving and deleting files. You MUST ALWAYS explicitly ask for user confirmation before deleting any files. When moving large numbers of files, ensure you have a way to undo or log the operations.

When a user requests file organization help:

Understand the Scope

Ask clarifying questions:
- Which directory needs organization? (Downloads, Documents, entire home folder?)
- What's the main problem? (Can't find things, duplicates, too messy, no structure?)
- Any files or folders to avoid? (Current projects, sensitive data?)
- How aggressively to organize? (Conservative vs. comprehensive cleanup)
Analyze Current State

Review the target directory to understand:
- Total files and folders
- File type breakdown
- Size distribution
- Date ranges
- Obvious organization issues
Identify Organization Patterns

Based on the files, determine logical groupings:

By Type:
- Documents (PDFs, DOCX, TXT)
- Images (JPG, PNG, SVG)
- Videos (MP4, MOV)
- Archives (ZIP, TAR, DMG)
- Code/Projects (directories with code)
- Spreadsheets (XLSX, CSV)
- Presentations (PPTX, KEY)
By Purpose:
- Work vs. Personal
- Active vs. Archive
- Project-specific
- Reference materials
- Temporary/scratch files
By Date:
- Current year/month
- Previous years
- Very old (archive candidates)
Find Duplicates

When requested, search for duplicates using available system tools.

Note: Avoid using platform-specific flags (like find -printf or md5 on Linux/Windows) unless you are sure of the environment.

Strategies:
- Exact Duplicates: Compare file hashes (use shasum, cksum, or md5sum depending on OS).
- Name Duplicates: Find files with the same filename.
- Size Duplicates: Find files with identical file sizes as a first pass.
For each set of duplicates:
- Show all file paths
- Display sizes and modification dates
- Recommend which to keep (usually newest or best-named)
- Important: Always ask for confirmation before deleting

Propose Organization Plan

Present a clear plan before making changes:

# Organization Plan for [Directory]

## Current State

- X files across Y folders
- [Size] total
- File types: [breakdown]
- Issues: [list problems]

## Proposed Structure

[Directory]/
├── Work/
│ ├── Projects/
│ ├── Documents/
│ └── Archive/
├── Personal/
│ ├── Photos/
│ ├── Documents/
│ └── Media/
└── Downloads/
├── To-Sort/
└── Archive/

## Changes I'll Make

1. **Create new folders**: [list]
2. **Move files**:
   - X PDFs -> Work/Documents/
   - Y images -> Personal/Photos/
   - Z old files -> Archive/
3. **Rename files**: [any renaming patterns]
4. **Delete**: [duplicates or trash files]

## Files Needing Your Decision

- [List any files you're unsure about]

Ready to proceed? (yes/no/modify)

Examples

Example 1: Organizing Downloads (From Justin Dielmann)

User: "My Downloads folder is a mess with 500+ files. Help me organize it."

Process:

Analyzes Downloads folder
Finds patterns: work docs, personal photos, installers, random PDFs
Proposes structure:
- Downloads/
  - Work/
  - Personal/
  - Installers/ (DMG, PKG files)
  - Archive/
  - ToSort/ (things needing decisions)
Asks for confirmation
Moves files intelligently based on content and names
Results: 500 files -> 5 organized folders

Example 2: Finding and Removing Duplicates

User: "Find duplicate files in my Documents and help me decide which to keep."

Output:

# Found 23 Sets of Duplicates (156 MB total)

## Duplicate Set 1: "proposal.pdf"

- `/Documents/proposal.pdf` (2.3 MB, modified: 2024-03-15)
- `/Documents/old/proposal.pdf` (2.3 MB, modified: 2024-03-15)
- `/Desktop/proposal.pdf` (2.3 MB, modified: 2024-03-10)

**Recommendation**: Keep `/Documents/proposal.pdf` (most recent in correct location)
Delete the other 2 copies?

[Continue for all duplicates...]

Best Practices

Folder Naming

Use clear, descriptive names
Avoid spaces (use hyphens or underscores)
Be specific: "client-proposals" not "docs"
Use prefixes for ordering: "01-current", "02-archive"

File Naming

Include dates: "2024-10-17-meeting-notes.md"
Be descriptive: "q3-financial-report.xlsx"
Avoid version numbers in names (use version control instead)
Remove download artifacts: "document-final-v2 (1).pdf" -> "document.pdf"

When to Archive

Projects not touched in 6+ months
Completed work that might be referenced later
Old versions after migration to new systems
Files you're hesitant to delete (archive first)

file-organizer