What is sifty?

Sifty is a Windows system cleaning and maintenance tool that you run from a terminal. It targets Windows 10 and 11 and is designed with safety in mind: by default every command only shows you what it would do without actually deleting anything. You have to add the flag --apply to make real changes, and all deletions go to the Recycle Bin rather than being permanently removed, so you can undo them. The tool covers a wide range of cleanup tasks. It can scan for junk files across more than eleven categories, analyze which folders and files are taking up the most space, find duplicate files by comparing their contents, list installed apps and uninstall them through Windows package management tools, scan for leftover files after an app is uninstalled, manage which programs run at startup, and apply pending software updates. It also has features aimed specifically at developers: it can delete folders full of downloaded dependencies or compiled build output that accumulate in coding projects, and it can clean up unused git repository copies and bloated virtual machine disk files. You can use Sifty two ways: a command-line interface where you type specific commands and get JSON output suitable for scripting, or a full-screen interactive application that opens in your terminal and lets you browse sections for cleaning, disk analysis, app management, and more. The interactive mode includes confirmation prompts before any changes, bulk selection for multiple items, and an undo button for the last clean. There is also an optional AI assistant that runs locally on your machine using Ollama, a tool for running AI models without an internet connection. The assistant can only see file names, sizes, and paths, never file contents, and it cannot delete anything on its own. It suggests actions and waits for your approval. Sifty is free, open source under the MIT license, and written in Python.