Show HN: Sifty – Windows cleanup CLI/TUI with local-only AI

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Clean junk, analyze disks, find duplicates, manage apps and startup programs, apply updates, prune dev artifacts and git worktrees, and organize files — from a scriptable CLI or a full-screen terminal UI. The optional AI assistant runs locally via Ollama: nothing leaves your machine, and it only ever sees file metadata (names, sizes, paths), never file contents.

Safety first

Sifty deletes files and changes system state, so it is built to be hard to misuse:

Dry-run by default — every destructive command previews what it would do. Real changes need an explicit --apply.

Recycle Bin, never permanent delete — all removals go through one trash() function backed by Send2Trash. sifty undo restores the last clean.

Protected paths — C:\Windows, Program Files, ProgramData, the drive root and your profile root are refused even with --apply --yes.

Audit log — every applied deletion is recorded in %APPDATA%\sifty\audit.log.

The AI never deletes anything — it is advisory; high-risk tool calls always require your approval.

How it compares

Feature Sifty CCleaner Revo Uninstaller WinDirStat

Junk / cache cleaning ✅ 11+ categories ✅ ➖ ❌

Disk usage analysis ✅ top-N + volumes ➖ ❌ ✅ treemap

Duplicate finder ✅ SHA-256, NTFS-aware ✅ (paid) ❌ ❌

App uninstall + leftover scan ✅ winget + leftovers ✅ ✅ + leftovers ❌

App updates ✅ via winget ✅ (paid) ❌ ❌

Startup manager ✅ reversible ✅ ✅ ❌

Dev artifact purge (node_modules, …) ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌

Git worktree / WSL2 VHD cleanup ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌

Local AI assistant ✅ Ollama ❌ ❌ ❌

Scriptable (JSON output) ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌

Recycle Bin + undo for everything ✅ ➖ ➖ n/a

Price Free, MIT Freemium Freemium Free

Sifty is built developer-first: everything is scriptable, the engine is a reusable Python library, and it cleans the things developer machines actually accumulate (build artifacts, orphaned worktrees, bloated WSL2 disks).

Install

pipx install sifty # recommended (isolated); or: pip install sifty scoop bucket add sifty https://github.com/Vortrix5/scoop-bucket; scoop install sifty winget install Vortrix5.Sifty # once the winget-pkgs PR is merged

sifty doctor # check admin rights, winget, Ollama

Prefer no Python install? Download the standalone sifty.exe from the latest release.

For development:

python -m venv .venv .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e ".[dev]" .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pytest -q

Usage

sifty checkup # one read-only scan of everything: junk, updates,

orphans, stale files, disk space, startup

sifty tui # the full-screen interactive app

Junk

sifty junk scan # show reclaimable space per category sifty junk clean # preview removal (dry-run) sifty junk clean --apply # send junk to the Recycle Bin (asks first)

Disk

sifty disk volumes # used/free/total per volume sifty disk analyze C:\Users # biggest folders/files under a path sifty disk duplicates D:\ # find duplicate files and wasted space

Apps & updates

sifty apps list --by-size # installed apps, largest first sifty apps orphans # broken uninstall entries in the registry sifty apps uninstall "App" # uninstall via winget (preview, then --apply) sifty apps leftovers "App" # what the uninstaller left behind (then --apply) sifty update check # available updates (winget) sifty update apply # upgrade everything (asks first)

Developer cleanup

sifty purge clean # node_modules, dist, pycache, target, … sifty cleanup duplicates D:\Photos # de-duplicate (keeps one copy each) sifty cleanup large C:\Users\you # biggest files under a path sifty cleanup stale --days 180 # old items in Downloads

Startup & services

sifty startup list # startup programs (enabled/disabled) sifty startup disable "Spotify" # reversible (sifty startup enable …) sifty services list # curated optional services + state sifty --admin services disable DiagTrack # toggle one (needs admin)

History & undo

sifty history # what was cleaned + total space reclaimed sifty undo # restore the most recent clean from the Recycle Bin

Organize files

sifty organize preview C:\Users\you\Downloads --by type sifty organize apply C:\Users\you\Downloads --by date sifty organize undo # put the last organize's files back

Configuration

sifty config # all settings + which ones you've overridden sifty config set ai.model "llama3.2:3b" sifty config edit # open config.toml in your editor

AI (requires Ollama running)

sifty ai status sifty ai ask "what can I safely delete on my C drive?" --path C:\

Scripting — JSON output on read-only commands (auto-enabled when piped)

sifty --json checkup sifty --json disk volumes sifty --json apps list --by-size

Some operations (Windows temp, update cache, certain uninstalls) need an Administrator terminal — sifty doctor tells you if you're elevated, and sifty --admin relaunches elevated via UAC.

The TUI

sifty tui opens a full-screen app with a seven-section sidebar — Home, Clean, Disk, Apps, Monitor, Reports, AI:

Home — volume gauges and a Run checkup button that scans everything at once; findings come with buttons that fix them right there (clean junk, clean stale downloads, apply updates — each behind a confirm).

Clean — Junk / Purge / Optimize / Smart cleanup under one roof (tabs).

Apps — Installed / Updates / Startup / Services, with fuzzy filter, sorting, bulk uninstall, and an automatic leftover scan after uninstalling.

AI — an agentic chat: tool runs it proposes show Run/Skip buttons inline in the conversation, and scan results carry follow-up action buttons.

Press Ctrl+P for the command palette (jump to any screen), F2 to elevate, Space to mark rows for bulk actions. The Reports screen shows space reclaimed over time with an Undo last clean button.

AI setup (optional)

Install Ollama and start it.

Pull the configured model: ollama pull qwen2.5:3b.

sifty ai status should report "running".

Configure everything with the sifty config command — no need to hand-edit files:

sifty config # show all settings + your overrides sifty config set ai.model "llama3.2:3b" # use a different local model sifty config set ai.host "http://localhost:11434" sifty config set safety.extra_protected_paths '["D:\\Important"]' sifty config set junk.include_downloads_installers true sifty config edit # or open config.toml in your editor

Settings live in %APPDATA%\sifty\config.toml; sifty config set only writes the keys you change, so defaults keep flowing through on upgrades.

Architecture

Layered — thin frontends over a reusable engine, OS specifics quarantined:

src/sifty/ ├── cli/ # Typer entry point + one thin command module per group ├── tui/ # Textual full-screen app (views call core, not cli) ├── core/ # the engine: junk, disk, apps, updates, cleanup, │ │ # startup, services, organize, checkup, history, … │ └── safety.py # ★ protected paths, dry-run guard, trash(), audit log ├── windows/ # OS primitives: winget, registry, UAC, Recycle Bin, DISM ├── ai/ # Ollama client, advisor prompts, agentic tool loop └── infra/ # TOML config + rotating diagnostics log

Frontends depend on core; core depends on windows/infra; nothing imports upward. A GUI could call the same engine functions (junk.scan, disk.find_duplicates, checkup.run_checkup) without a rewrite. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the design rationale.

Tests

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pytest -q # 160+ tests, ~20 s

The safety guardrails are the most heavily tested code in the repo; the Windows environment is mocked so the suite also runs on CI. See CONTRIBUTING.md to get involved.

License

MIT © Amine Zouaoui

About

An AI-assisted Windows maintenance CLI + TUI that sifts the junk from the keep.

Topics

windows

productivity

command-line

uninstall

optimize

clean

tui

junk-cleaner

system-cleaner

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Readme

License

MIT license

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Contributing

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Sifty v0.6.0

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Jun 12, 2026

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