CrapCleaner is engineered with a strict safety-first architecture:

1. Non-Destructive Scanning: Scanning operations are strictly read-only and never alter or delete disk contents.
2. Recycle Bin by Default: Cleanups move files to the Windows Recycle Bin, or to the FreeDesktop Trash on Linux, so they can be restored if necessary.
3. Safety Tiers:
   • SAFE: Clean, automatically regenerated temporary files.
   • LOW_RISK: Rebuilt on demand (caches, shader caches).
   • REVIEW: Sensitive items requiring explicit user choice (Windows.old, Recycle Bin).
   • DANGEROUS: Protected items that are never automatically checked or cleaned (AI model weights, OS recovery partitions).
4. Read-Only AI Weight Inspection: AI weights (GGUF, safetensors, checkpoints for Ollama, LM Studio, Hugging Face) are strictly inspected read-only.
5. Junction and Symlink Protection: Traversal avoids circular junctions and symlink loops.

If you discover a security vulnerability or potential data-loss issue in CrapCleaner, please do not open a public issue.

Instead, please report it privately through GitHub Security Advisories, which notifies the maintainer directly. Reports will be reviewed, patched, and released promptly.