# Claude Code /doctor: prune stale skills and slim your config

> A TikTok creator claims Claude Code's /doctor prunes unused skills, slims CLAUDE.md, and pre-approves repeat permission prompts. Unverified, worth testing first.

Published: 2026-07-31
URL: https://daniliants.com/insights/claude-code-doctor-prune-stale-skills-and-slim-your-config/
Tags: claude-code, skills, context-window, context-management

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## Summary

A TikTok creator claims Claude Code's `/doctor` command now does four maintenance jobs tuned for newer models: audits setup health, prunes unused skills and plugins based on 30+ days of usage logs, rewrites an overly dense CLAUDE.md into something leaner, and auto-approves permission prompts for commands that keep getting re-approved. The framing: as models get better at inferring intent, a bloated config becomes a liability rather than a safety net.

## Key Insight

- Four claimed actions of `/doctor`: (1) find and remove duplicated or broken config files, (2) trim skills and plugins that show zero usage in the last 30+ days by reading logs, (3) shrink CLAUDE.md, "less is more" with newer models versus the old habit of exhaustively specifying behavior, (4) detect commands that trigger repeated permission prompts and pre-approve them.
- Underlying thesis: dense CLAUDE.md files and stale skills eat context window and quietly degrade output quality, so periodic pruning beats adding more instructions.
- Unverified claim, worth checking before acting: this describes a richer feature set than the `claude doctor` diagnostic command historically did (installation and environment health checks). Whether it now also does usage-log-based skill pruning, CLAUDE.md rewriting, and permission auto-approval should be confirmed against the actual installed version before relying on it.
- Independent of whether the specific command matches, the underlying practice of periodically trimming dead skills and shortening CLAUDE.md as models improve is a reasonable hygiene habit for any heavy Claude Code or agent-config setup.