The latest articles on Forem by Mahimai Raja J (@mahimairaja). https://forem.com/mahimairaja https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F1015878%2F664027fa-775e-4abd-bf63-717f2aa5ac5c.jpeg https://forem.com/mahimairaja en Mahimai Raja J Wed, 11 Feb 2026 02:55:15 +0000 https://forem.com/mahimairaja/envoic-a-cli-to-find-and-clean-python-virtual-environments-40f https://forem.com/mahimairaja/envoic-a-cli-to-find-and-clean-python-virtual-environments-40f <p>If you work across multiple Python projects, you’ve probably accumulated a graveyard of old <code>.venv</code> folders.</p> <p>Some are active.<br><br> Some are stale.<br><br> Some are huge and silently eating disk.</p> <p>I built <strong><a href="https://pypi.org/project/envoic/" rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>envoic</code></a></strong> to solve that.</p> <h2> What <code>envoic</code> does </h2> <p><code>envoic</code> is a terminal-first CLI that:</p> <ul> <li>scans directories to discover Python environments</li> <li>detects <code>venv</code>, <code>virtualenv</code>, <code>conda</code>, and optional plain <code>.env</code> dirs</li> <li>reports size, age, Python version, and stale status</li> <li>now supports safe cleanup workflows</li> </ul> <p>The output style is compact and information-dense, inspired by TR-200 style reporting.</p> <h2> Quick start </h2> <p>No install needed:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>uvx envoic scan <span class="nb">.</span> </code></pre> </div> <p>Or install:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>uv tool <span class="nb">install </span>envoic <span class="c"># or</span> pipx <span class="nb">install </span>envoic </code></pre> </div> <h2> Core commands </h2> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>envoic scan <span class="o">[</span>PATH] envoic list <span class="o">[</span>PATH] envoic info &lt;ENV_PATH&gt; envoic manage <span class="o">[</span>PATH] envoic clean <span class="o">[</span>PATH] envoic version </code></pre> </div> <h2> New in latest release: <code>manage</code> + <code>clean</code> </h2> <h3> 1) <code>envoic manage</code> (interactive) </h3> <p>Interactively pick environments to remove:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>envoic manage ~/projects </code></pre> </div> <p>Features:</p> <ul> <li>checkbox selector</li> <li>stale-only preselection (<code>--stale-only</code>)</li> <li>deep metadata mode (<code>--deep</code>)</li> <li>explicit destructive confirmation (<code>type "delete"</code>)</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F9z95sqrm6nkanjf4j2uj.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F9z95sqrm6nkanjf4j2uj.png" alt="envoic manage sample" width="800" height="403"></a></p> <h3> 2) <code>envoic clean</code> (non-interactive stale cleanup) </h3> <p>Great for routine cleanup:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="c"># preview first</span> envoic clean ~/projects <span class="nt">--dry-run</span> <span class="c"># delete stale envs (&gt;90d by default)</span> envoic clean ~/projects <span class="c"># custom threshold</span> envoic clean ~/projects <span class="nt">--stale-days</span> 180 </code></pre> </div> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fllvgwpkusxpxb5w2odca.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fllvgwpkusxpxb5w2odca.png" alt="envoic clean sample" width="800" height="388"></a></p> <h2> Safety-first deletion design </h2> <p>Deleting environments is irreversible, so safety is the default:</p> <ul> <li>requires typed confirmation (<code>delete</code>) unless <code>--yes</code> </li> <li>supports <code>--dry-run</code> preview</li> <li>validates selected paths stay inside scan root</li> <li>symlink-safe deletion (remove link, not target)</li> <li>per-env error handling (continues on failures)</li> </ul> <h2> Windows + WSL note </h2> <p><code>envoic</code> scans from the environment where it runs.</p> <ul> <li>Run in <strong>Windows</strong> → best for Windows-side envs</li> <li>Run in <strong>WSL</strong> → best for Linux/WSL-side envs</li> </ul> <p>For WSL projects, running <code>envoic</code> inside WSL is recommended.</p> <h2> Why I built it </h2> <p>I wanted one command that answers:</p> <ul> <li>What Python environments do I actually have?</li> <li>Which ones are stale?</li> <li>How much space can I recover safely?</li> </ul> <p>No spreadsheet, no manual <code>find</code>, no guesswork.</p> <h2> Links </h2> <ul> <li>PyPI: <a href="https://pypi.org/project/envoic/" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://pypi.org/project/envoic/</a> </li> <li>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/mahimailabs/envoic" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/mahimailabs/envoic</a> </li> <li>Docs: <a href="https://mahimailabs.github.io/envoic/" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://mahimailabs.github.io/envoic/</a> </li> </ul> <p>If you try it, I’d love feedback and feature requests.</p> python programming devtools productivity