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All apps/Maid

Maid

maid

Be lazy! Let Maid clean up after you, based on rules you define. Think of it as "Hazel for hackers".

Runs as maid|macOS, Linux, Windows|github.com

Open form in Otty otty.toml

Sync rules

What travels, what stays, what never leaves

Maid in your home directory Every rule on this page, by file

· rules.rb Sync

· maid.log Exclude

Only what the catalog names. A directory that syncs brings everything inside it except what is listed as excluded here.

apps/maid/otty.tomlThe file this page is generated from

id = "maid"

name = "Maid"

homepage = "https://github.com/maid/maid"

description = "Be lazy! Let Maid clean up after you, based on rules you define. Think of it as \"Hazel for hackers\"."

# The project's own mark, from its GitHub organisation avatar.

icon = "https://github.com/maid.png?size=200"

executables = ["maid"]

[dotfiles]

# lib/maid/maid.rb — the DEFAULTS hash:

# rules_path: File.expand_path('~/.maid/rules.rb')

# log_device: File.expand_path('~/.maid/maid.log')

# and the constructor does FileUtils.mkdir_p(File.expand_path('~/.maid')), so

# the directory is always there once maid has run. rules.rb is the file the user

# writes: "Your rules are defined in Ruby" (README).

paths = ["~/.maid/rules.rb"]

# ~/.maid/maid.log is the run log — "actions are logged so you can tell what

# happened" (README) — and it is not below a path above, so there is nothing to

# carve out. Named here anyway so a consumer widening this entry to the whole

# ~/.maid directory does not pick the log up.

exclude = ["~/.maid/maid.log"]

# A Ruby rule file: globs, directory names and the actions to take. No

# credentials.

secret = []

# No machine_lines. Rules do name directories — `dir('~/Downloads/*')` — but

# they are written home-relative, which is the point of carrying them to another

# machine. A rule that hard-codes a volume would be machine-local, but there is

# no keyword to match it on: the whole file is Ruby, not a key-value format.

# maid loads rules.rb at the start of each run and exits; nothing holds the file

# open between runs.

side_effect = false

[commands]

format = 1

label = "Maid"

description = "Run or rehearse your Maid cleanup rules. Daemon mode and rule generation are left out."

quality = "ai-draft"

parser = { end_of_options = "--", interleave = "permute", long_equals = true, short_attached = true, short_bundles = true }

[[commands.subcommand]]

path = ["clean"]

label = "Clean up"

description = "Run the rules in ~/.maid/rules.rb (or another rules file). Use Dry run first to see what would happen; Force actually performs the actions."

[[commands.subcommand.source]]

id = "readme"

kind = "manual"

url = "https://github.com/maid/maid#readme"

revision = "HEAD 2026-10-27"

evidence = """

maid clean --dry-run # Synonyms: -n, --noop

maid clean -f # Run the rules at ~/.maid/rules.rb, logging to ~/.maid/maid.log

maid clean -fr some_rules.rb # Run the rules in the file 'some_rules.rb', logging to ~/.maid/maid.log

$ maid clean -nr some_rules.rb

maid clean --force --silent --rules ~/.maid/rules.rb

"""

[[commands.subcommand.field]]

id = "dry_run"

label = "Dry run"

description = "Show what would happen without taking any action."

type = "boolean"

option = ["--dry-run", "-n"]

sources = ["readme"]

[[commands.subcommand.field]]

id = "force"

label = "Force (perform actions)"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--force", "-f"]

effect = "exec"

sources = ["readme"]

[[commands.subcommand.field]]

id = "rules"

label = "Rules file"

description = "Defaults to ~/.maid/rules.rb."

type = "path"

option = ["--rules", "-r"]

path = { kind = "file", role = "input", must_exist = true }

sources = ["readme"]

[[commands.subcommand.field]]

id = "silent"

label = "Silent"

description = "Suppress output, e.g. when run from cron."

type = "boolean"

option = ["--silent"]

sources = ["readme"]

[[commands.subcommand.task]]

id = "preview"

label = "Preview rules"

fields = ["dry_run", "rules"]

required = ["dry_run"]

set = { dry_run = [true] }

[[commands.subcommand.task]]

id = "run"

label = "Run rules"

fields = ["force", "rules", "silent"]

required = ["force"]

set = { force = [true] }

[[commands.subcommand.group]]

id = "basic"

label = "Basic"

fields = ["dry_run", "force", "rules", "silent"]

Use it with your dotfile manager

Same data, in the shape your tool already reads

Opens Otty and adds this tool to what it syncs

Opens otty://sync/add/maid. Otty ships with this catalog, so the link only has to name the tool — nothing is downloaded.

Every one of these is generated from the same rules as this page.