Plugin Cleaner

[canbekcan]

	Summary	Safely scans, audits, and cleans orphaned database residue left behind by uninstalled plugins.
	Repository Link	GitHub - canbekcan/discourse-plugin-cleaner · GitHub
	Install Guide	How to install plugins in Discourse
	Coding	Vibe Coding - Gemini

Features

When you uninstall a Discourse plugin, it often leaves behind hidden data in your database. Over time, this “residue” can clutter your database and complicate site maintenance. Discourse Plugin Cleaner is a comprehensive administrative tool designed to safely identify and remove this orphaned data.

Major Features Include:

• Deep Scanning: Scans multiple database tables including Custom Fields (User, Topic, Post, Category, Group), Plugin Settings, Themes, Badges, API Keys, Webhooks, Tag Groups, and Uploads.
• Safe Audit Mode (Zero Auto-Delete): The plugin operates strictly as an auditing tool until you take action. It will never automatically delete data. You must manually select and confirm the items you wish to remove.
• Risk Assessment: Automatically assigns a “Risk Level” (Critical, High, Medium, Low, OK) to detected items to help administrators make informed decisions about what is safe to delete.
• Version History Tracking: Takes snapshots of your installed plugins on boot. If a plugin is removed, it logs the state change, creating a historical record of what was uninstalled and when.
• Modern Admin Interface: Provides a sleek, intuitive dashboard built with Ember strict-mode components for seamless integration into the Discourse Admin interface.

Configuration

The plugin works out of the box with sensible defaults. To use the plugin:

1. Access the Dashboard: Navigate to your Discourse Admin dashboard. In the sidebar, under the Plugins section, click on Plugin Cleaner.
2. Run a Scan: Click the “Run Deep Scan” button. The system will query your database and generate a real-time report of all orphaned data it finds.
3. Review Issues: Browse through the categorized tabs (Custom Fields, Plugin Settings, etc.). Pay close attention to the Risk and Status columns.
4. Select and Clean: Check the boxes next to the orphaned items you wish to remove.
5. Confirm Deletion: Click “Delete Selected”. You will be prompted with a final confirmation warning before the data is permanently erased. All deletions are automatically logged in the Discourse Staff Action Logs for security auditing.

(Note for Uploads: If orphaned uploads are found, the plugin will instruct you to run rake uploads:clean from your server console to physically reclaim disk space).

Settings

You can customize the strictness of the scanner via your site settings.

Name	Description
plugin_cleaner_orphan_threshold	The maximum number of records a custom field can have to be considered “orphaned”. If a custom field has fewer records than this threshold, it will be flagged for review. (Default: 5, Min: 1, Max: 100)
plugin_cleaner_stale_api_key_days	The number of days an API key must go unused before the scanner flags it as stale/orphaned. (Default: 90 days, Min: 7, Max: 365)
plugin_cleaner_stale_upload_days	The number of days an unlinked upload can exist before it is flagged as orphaned. (Default: 30 days, Min: 1, Max: 365)

(Note: This is the project to understand how Discourse plugins work)

[merefield (Robert)]

Nice intent.

A few challenges:

• Many good plugins create and manage their own tables. Looking at your code, I’m not sure you’ve taken account of that yet?

  • Your challenge is that once you remove the plugin the migration disappears.
  • What if the plugin changes data to a core table somehow (eg adds a record)? For example a data explorer query or something less transparent.

• I don’t see a way your plugin protects the user from deleting the custom fields outside of a specific plugin they might want to “cleanse” - you are relying on the user to identify them? Just blocks deleting custom fields that aren’t in core?

And on that note:

lib/plugin_cleaner/scanner.rb

That looks a little risky. What if a core upgrade adds new ones that you don’t catalogue - are you going to risk deleting new core fields that you are not explicitly listing?

In any case I wish you luck with development, it’s definitely an interesting addition.