Auto-delete task history with configurable retention

[hannesrudolph]

Problem

Task history can accumulate indefinitely, increasing disk usage over time and making task history harder to manage.

Impact

Users who run many tasks (especially long-term) are affected by growing disk usage and cluttered task history. A retention policy reduces unbounded growth and avoids manual cleanup.

I've analyzed this issue and here's my proposed implementation plan:

Proposed Implementation

1. Add New Settings to Global Settings Schema

Add two new settings in packages/types/src/global-settings.ts:

• taskHistoryAutoDeleteEnabled: boolean (default: false) - whether auto-delete is enabled
• taskHistoryRetentionDays: number (default: 30) - number of days to retain task history

2. Add Auto-Cleanup Logic in ClineProvider

Create a cleanupOldTasks() method in src/core/webview/ClineProvider.ts that:

• Checks if taskHistoryAutoDeleteEnabled is true
• Filters taskHistory to find tasks older than taskHistoryRetentionDays (based on ts timestamp)
• Only deletes completed tasks (not active/delegated tasks)
• Calls the existing deleteTaskWithId() for each expired task (handles checkpoint cleanup and disk removal)

3. Trigger Cleanup at Appropriate Times

• On provider initialization (when extension starts)
• After a task completes (to maintain hygiene)
• Cleanup runs asynchronously to not block UI

4. Add UI Settings in the Settings Tab

• Add toggle for enabling/disabling auto-delete
• Add input for configuring retention days with reasonable constraints (min: 1, max: 365)
• Include helpful description explaining the feature

5. Update ExtensionState Interface

Expose the new settings to the webview so the UI can display current configuration.

Questions for Clarification

1. Scope: Should auto-delete apply to all workspaces or only the current workspace? (I propose all workspaces for simplicity)

2. Task states: Should only completed tasks be auto-deleted, or should this also include tasks that haven't been touched in a while regardless of status? (I propose only completed tasks to avoid data loss)

3. Manual trigger: Would you like a manual "Clean up old tasks now" button in addition to automatic cleanup?

This approach reuses the existing deleteTaskWithId() method to ensure proper cleanup of checkpoints and disk storage.

Please mention @roomote in a comment saying that you approve this plan (with any modifications), and I'll proceed with the implementation.

[hamiltop]

I'm approaching 50GB of task history. Would love to see this feature!

I'm just going to wipe files in the tasks directory based on age.

As a data point: 30 days cleans up most of them for me.

➜  tasks find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +30 -print | wc -l
    1356
➜  tasks find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -print | wc -l
    1544

I ran then added -exec rm -rf {} + onto the command and ran it, freeing up tens of GB.

Excited to see this as a first class feature!

[hannesrudolph]

Closing issue along with PR #9262.