cc-clean open-sourced to prune Claude Code and Codex session storage

On 2026-11-11, a developer posted an open-source tool called cc-clean on V2EX for cleaning up local session storage left behind by Claude Code and Codex. According to the post, sessions pile up quickly when using Claude Code and Codex at the same time, and with limited disk space the author found themselves constantly shifting files around, hesitating to delete anything. After studying the underlying design of both tools, the author concluded that some redundant fields can be safely removed, with the stated goal of keeping as many sessions as possible without affecting resume, and dropping only the excess fields.

The cleanup list covers four items. First, embedded images: when you send a picture to point out what to change, it is stored in the chat history as Base64 encoding, sometimes repeatedly, yet it is rarely needed after the session ends. The author keeps valuable images elsewhere and says they have almost never gone back to these inline images, typically browsing history for the text chat instead. Second, command outputs are trimmed. Third, Codex encrypted reasoning states are removed. Fourth, Codex old context compression snapshots are removed. Embedded images are called out as the largest single source of bloat. The tool can be run with npx cc-clean@latest. As of the release, no further developments have been reported.