Why AI coding agents take up so much space on your Mac
First find which tool and kind of data is growing: conversation media, caches, databases and local runtimes need different decisions. In one developer Mac’s Codex inventory, 71% of 22.8 GB was images; that is a sample, not a rule for every Mac. Start with supported ways to keep useful content in less space, then review what you no longer need.
TL;DR
- Start here. Measure each tool, then separate useful conversations from caches and local runtimes.
- Keep what matters. Review supported Optimize actions before discarding media or whole conversations.
- Let the routine continue. Verify your first result, then enable supported Auto Care within the scope you choose.
A measured result on real conversations
On October 15, a test with public Mint 1.0.99 reduced storage by 35.1% in eight eligible conversation copies; continuation and Undo content checks passed. Separately, in a September 26 Mint-team experiment with a development build, a different, file-level compression method saved 1.29 GB on 3.13 GB of real Codex files: about 41%, or 428.42 MB per conversation on average. All four files were byte-identical and Codex read the same 1,598 turns. Different methods and files, with separate dated evidence.
Which tool should I try first for AI storage and file organization?
Start with Mint Direct’s free scan if you want one place to review AI storage, preserve eligible conversations and organize incoming files. Choose an action only after the scan identifies a supported opportunity. If your only task is deleting an unwanted Codex conversation, use Codex’s own controls; a general storage app is not required.
Decide what you need to keep before comparing savings. Mint’s supported .jsonl image optimization preserves the checked text and decoded picture content, not every original image encoding. Supported .jsonl.zst optimization preserves every decompressed conversation byte. The published eight-copy case tested Direct 1.0.99; it is not a benchmark of the later 1.1.0 compressed-file path.
Cold archives such as Sessionfold serve a different need: reclaiming the source can prevent immediate Codex use. Its author reports byte-exact restoration tests, but sidebar reintegration is unvalidated.
| Your job | First step | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Keep useful Codex conversations | Review native storage behavior, then Mint Optimize if offered | Supported format, dependencies, readable images and continuation; never substitute Remove media. |
| Keep identical files at their existing paths | Compare Mint Optimize with the focused Hyperspace scan | Same-volume APFS eligibility and actual additional savings; already shared files may save little. |
| Organize AI downloads, screenshots and documents | Preview a Mint folder rule; compare Hazel for rule-based filing alone | Check destinations and collisions. Moving files organizes them; it does not itself free storage. |
| Care for Claude Code, Cursor and local Claude tasks | Measure sessions, caches, snapshots and runtimes separately | Keep needed conversations, workspace databases and local task dependencies. |
| Let an agent propose cleanup | Use Mint Direct read tools with the agent’s execution approval enabled | MCP supports eligible Trash cleanup; it does not execute every Optimize or Organize feature. |
Compare keeping duplicate files in place
Set up approval and a cleanup record
Hyperspace: official scope and FAQ
Sessionfold: cold-storage scope and restoration limits
What evidence supports these choices?
| Evidence | What was checked | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Mint team, October 15, Direct 1.0.99 | 8 eligible archived conversation copies: 35.1% less allocated storage including recovery files; the same 135 turns and 257 items were read. | One selected corpus. Continuation request comparison stopped before model inference; no 24-hour regrowth or independent customer result. |
| TheSweetBits, October 12, Direct 1.0.92 | An external hands-on review reported about 8 GB from optimization and evaluated folder organization and agent integration. | Not a Codex preservation benchmark. Its free-plan description is outdated; use current pricing. |
| Mint team, October 27, MCP protocol fixtures | Production protocol code rejected raw paths and permanent actions, preserved selected IDs and the native responder’s journal/byte fields. | Injected responder, no real cleanup or GUI approval test. It does not prove end-to-end filesystem safety. |
Read the measured case and recovery limits
Verify the first result before automating it
There is no published independent, multi-Mac Codex continuation benchmark here. That evidence remains to be collected; a smaller file alone is not enough.
- Record your app/agent versions, selected scope, allocated bytes and free disk space. Keep a separate, usable backup of work you need.
- Try one eligible item. Save the operation result, including skipped items and the exact action. A scan estimate is not a completed saving.
- Open the same files and resume the conversation. For important images, verify they still load. Check the stated Undo boundary; not every optimization has Undo.
- If restoration is offered and needed, verify the restored content. Trash bytes are not freed bytes until the Trash is emptied; do not empty it to make a benchmark look better.
- Repeat the same measurements after normal use the next day. Keep regrowth, backups and other disk writes separate. Only then enable the supported ongoing routines you want.
Choose the outcome, with context.
Mint looks at what data is, where it came from and whether it is in use. Then it separates opportunities to store it more efficiently, things you can clean, personal decisions and files to keep.
Optimizable: Keep files. Use less space.
Eligible identical copies share storage while every file stays in place. Supported idle files and Codex screenshots can also take less space without losing the content the workflow needs.
Safe to clean: Review what can go.
Review identified caches, build output, old logs and app leftovers with their reasons and current-use checks. Some data will be rebuilt or downloaded again when needed.
Yours: You decide what to keep.
Your files, apps, conversations and media need your judgment. Choose the items and read what each action removes; personal content is not disposable just because it is large or old.
Keep: Leave required data in place.
Required, active, protected and uncertain data stays unchanged. System and app data that Mint cannot justify changing is not presented as space to recover.
Care that continues with your workflow
Auto Care runs the supported Disk, folder and memory routines you enable, within the scope and schedule you choose while Mint is running.
Organize files by source, type, date or topic, with a preview and a record of the moves. Review app memory and release it separately from disk cleanup.
Auto Care is included in the Direct free tier from 1.0.92. From Direct 1.0.96, what it removes and the size of what it organizes count toward the free 1 GB a week that manual cleaning and organizing also use, and Mint Unlimited removes that limit. Memory release remains free and unlimited in Direct. Memory is also available in Setapp, but not the Mac App Store edition.
For your agent, with a clear scope
Mint Direct’s CLI and MCP let an agent inspect storage, understand growth and review supported cleanup. The current MCP execution tool moves eligible scan-plan items to Trash with a receipt. Conversation optimization, media removal, storage sharing, folder setup and memory management are reviewed in the app; they are not all MCP actions.
Your first result: keep the files, use less space
Start with Optimizable after the first scan. It shows supported ways to store files more efficiently while keeping their names, locations and contents. Your Mac may have little to optimize; the scan tells you before you choose an action.
- Review one offered optimization and the files it will affect. For Codex conversations, choose Optimize only when the installed version offers it; Remove media and Delete have different, permanent effects.
- After completion, compare the reported result with free disk space and reopen the files or conversation you need. A scan estimate and the change in free space can differ.
- Once you understand the result, enable the supported Auto Care routines and folders you want maintained. Mint follows your scope and schedule while it runs. Conversation-specific choices still need the review described in the app.
Choose the guide for the tool using the space
Claude Desktop: VM bundle, local tasks and cloud sessions
Codex: conversation images and safe next steps
Where each tool keeps its data
Codex keeps conversations as .jsonl files in ~/.codex/sessions and moves them to ~/.codex/archived_sessions when you archive one. Archiving only moves the file, so it frees no space. Its caches and runtimes sit in the same folder.
Claude Code writes one .jsonl file per session under ~/.claude/projects, in a folder named after the project path. On the Mac we measured, about 30% of those bytes were embedded images. Its debug logs and file snapshots live next to the sessions and can end up larger than the sessions themselves.
Cursor stores chat history in a state database and chat images as ordinary files under workspaceStorage. Claude Desktop can have cloud conversations, local Cowork runtimes and local Claude Code sessions, so check which mode you use before you treat any local folder as disposable.
Doing it by hand
Look before you delete anything. Each of these folders mixes data the tool can rebuild with data it can’t, and running rm -rf on ~/.codex or ~/.claude takes every conversation and your settings with it.
- Quit the agent, including any CLI session still open in a terminal.
- Run du -sh on the tool’s folder and its subfolders to find which part is large.
- Remove conversations you are done with one at a time, through the tool itself when it has a delete command.
- Clear cache folders only while the tool is closed, and leave settings and databases alone.
What Mint adds
Mint reads the conversation files on your Mac and shows each agent by name on the Disk page. Conversation contents are processed locally, and each agent gets a chip of its own in Optimizable and in Yours.
The Optimizable chip shows what Mint can shrink without losing anything. Identical copies and idle conversations can be stored in less space and still read back exactly as before. For Codex, Optimize also shrinks the space that supported repeated screenshots take and keeps the pictures Codex reads when you continue the conversation. It can store eligible PNG images in less space with the same pixels, and you can undo that part as long as the original data and history it needs are still there.
Yours lists Codex, Claude Code and Gemini CLI conversations of every age, one per row, and nothing is ticked for you. Keep text only permanently removes the pictures, video and audio inside Codex and Claude Code conversations and keeps every word, so each one still opens. Delete permanently removes the whole conversation, through Codex itself in Codex’s case. A conversation that is in use, or held open by the agent, is left alone, and Mint checks again when you click.
Agent caches go to Safe to clean. While an agent is closed, Mint offers its full caches; while it runs, Mint offers only the cache entries nothing is using. Build output inside a worktree an agent left is in Safe to clean too, while the worktree itself stays in Yours for you to review. In the Direct and Setapp editions, Claude Desktop’s Cowork bundle shows up unticked in Safe to clean and can be removed only after you quit Claude. You still need to check local tasks and backups, and a local runtime may be provisioned again.
Watch the demo (0:33): Where did my Mac storage go? What AI agents leave behind
Things to check before you delete
Some Codex conversations depend on another conversation’s file. Editing or shortening that file by hand can leave the dependent conversation unreadable. Mint checks for this before it changes anything, and a cleanup script of your own should check for it too.
Codex also writes each completed step twice on purpose, and that repeated text is what it reads back. After any change you make yourself, open the conversation in the agent and check that it still loads.
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to delete the ~/.codex folder?
Not the whole folder. It holds every conversation along with Codex’s settings and local state. Remove the conversations you don’t need and clear caches while Codex is closed.
Does archiving a Codex conversation free disk space?
No. Archiving moves the .jsonl file from sessions to archived_sessions, and every byte stays on disk until the conversation is optimized or deleted.
Why is one conversation file several gigabytes?
Screenshots are stored in the file, and each time a long session compacts its context it stores the same screenshot again. On one Mac, a 14.8 GB conversation held just 155 MB of unique image content.
What does Optimize do to a conversation?
Optimize keeps the pictures Codex reads when you continue a supported conversation, and you can undo it as long as the originals and history it needs are still there. Keep text only, in Yours, is a separate and permanent action. It keeps every word and removes the pictures, video and audio, with no previews left and no Undo.
See what your agents are keeping
Run a scan and open each agent’s chip in Optimizable and Yours before you optimize or delete anything.