Automatic Desktop File Organizer

Why Desktop Files Are Hard to Tidy

Desktop directories often mix downloads, screenshots, work documents, and code files. Manual sorting is slow and can easily miss loose files that were dragged into the desktop recently. For engineers, the useful capability is not a full file-management system, but a local, low-risk cleanup action: process only loose desktop files, move them into folders by clear extensions, and keep an auditable report.

How the Skill Works

organize-desktop targets desktop file organization. Its core workflow is:

• Scan and analyze: read the desktop directory and list the files to process, while ignoring folders and hidden files by default.
• Map categories: classify files by extension into images, documents, archives, code, videos, audio, installers, or other.
• Perform cleanup: create the target category folders and move files, using safe moves when available.
• Report results: show how many files were moved into each category, making the action easier to review.

The safety model is explicit: it does not delete files by default and only moves them. It supports a dry_run mode to preview operations, handles name conflicts by adding suffixes such as file 2.pdf, and skips .lnk shortcuts and system files by default. Custom rules can be placed in organizer_config.json on the desktop, and the bundled organize.py script can be used to inspect or run the organizing logic.

Boundaries

This is best suited for cleaning up loose files on the desktop, not for deep cross-directory cleanup, cloud synchronization, or complex permission scenarios. If the desktop contains many active files, run dry_run first and confirm the target categories and file scope before moving. Files with ambiguous extensions or business-specific names should still be reviewed manually, since automatic grouping is only a first-pass organization step.