delete

MCP tool that moves files and directories to macOS Trash ($HOME/.Trash) instead of permanently deleting them. Safe replacement for rm and rmdir.

Installation

go build -o delete .
cp delete /usr/local/bin/delete

Register as an MCP server:

claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user delete -- /usr/local/bin/delete

Usage

MCP Tool

Tool delete accepts a single parameter:

• path (string, required) — absolute path to the file or directory to trash

CLI

delete --cli <path> [path...]

Behavior

• Moves files, directories, and symlinks to $HOME/.Trash
• Handles name collisions by appending a timestamp suffix
• Blocks system paths (/System, /usr, /bin, /sbin, /etc, /var, /private, /Applications)
• Refuses to trash $HOME/.Trash itself

Output

{
  "original_path": "/tmp/example.txt",
  "trash_path": "/Users/you/.Trash/example.txt",
  "type": "file",
  "size": 42
}

For directories, an items field is included with the total entry count.