Apple Notes Cost Tuning

What it does

Example prompts

• “apple notes cost”
• “/apple-notes-cost-tuning”

Requirements

• Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Designed for Claude Code
• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Write, Edit, Bash(osascript:*), Grep

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Use System Settings or the iCloud account owner as the source of truth for current capacity and plan decisions.
2. 2Measure aggregate storage indicators for an approved scope; avoid exporting or enumerating unrelated notes to estimate cost.
3. 3Propose a reversible archive plan with retention, encryption, reconciliation, and explicit deletion approval.
4. 4Do not move notes between accounts automatically—account moves can change sharing, sync, and recovery behavior.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit cfae287. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Bash(osascript:*)
  • Grep

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • osascript
  • jq

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

  • support.apple.com
  • developer.apple.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

• Compatibility

  Designed for Claude Code

  From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Apple Notes Cost Tuning loads about 1.5k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 33 tokens; SKILL.md has 464 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~33

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace at commit cfae287, republished under its MIT licence (© jeremylongshore). 464 words, ~1,506 tokens.

name

apple-notes-cost-tuning

description

Apple Notes cost optimization — it is free, focus on iCloud storage management. Trigger: "apple notes cost".

allowed-tools

Read, Write, Edit, Bash(osascript:*), Grep

compatibility

Designed for Claude Code

version

1.6.0

license

MIT

author

Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io>

tags

saas, macos, apple-notes, automation

#!/bin/bash
# Audit Apple Notes storage consumption
echo "=== iCloud Storage Overview ==="
# Total iCloud usage (approximate from system)
df -h ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ 2>/dev/null | tail -1

echo ""
echo "=== Notes Content Audit ==="
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const accounts = Notes.accounts();
  let report = [];
  accounts.forEach(a => {
    const notes = a.notes();
    let totalChars = 0;
    let withAttachments = 0;
    notes.forEach(n => {
      totalChars += n.body().length;
      if (n.attachments().length > 0) withAttachments++;
    });
    report.push(a.name() + ": " + notes.length + " notes, ~" +
      Math.round(totalChars / 1024) + "KB text, " +
      withAttachments + " with attachments");
  });
  report.join("\n");
'

// Move attachment-heavy notes to local account (no iCloud cost)
const Notes = Application("Notes");
const localAccount = Notes.accounts().find(a => a.name() === "On My Mac");
const icloud = Notes.defaultAccount;

// Find notes with large bodies (likely have embedded images)
const largeNotes = icloud.notes().filter(n => n.body().length > 100000);
largeNotes.forEach(n => {
  console.log(`Large note: ${n.name()} (${Math.round(n.body().length / 1024)}KB)`);
});
// Manual move: drag notes to "On My Mac" in Notes.app sidebar

# Export old notes to local markdown files, then delete from iCloud
ARCHIVE_DIR="$HOME/notes-archive/$(date +%Y-%m)"
mkdir -p "$ARCHIVE_DIR"
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const cutoff = new Date(Date.now() - 180 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000); // 6 months ago
  Notes.defaultAccount.notes()
    .filter(n => n.modificationDate() < cutoff)
    .map(n => JSON.stringify({ title: n.name(), body: n.body() }))
    .join("\n");
' | while IFS= read -r line; do
  title=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.title' 2>/dev/null) || continue
  safe=$(echo "$title" | tr '/:*?"<>|' '-' | head -c 80)
  echo "$line" | jq -r '.body' > "$ARCHIVE_DIR/$safe.html"
done
echo "Archived to $ARCHIVE_DIR — review before deleting from Notes"

© jeremylongshore, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/.curated/apple-notes-cost-tuning of jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit cfae287