rclone File Transfer Skill
Setup Check (Always Run First)
Before any rclone operation, verify installation and configuration:
Check if rclone is installed
command -v rclone >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "rclone installed: $(rclone version | head -1)" || echo "NOT INSTALLED"
List configured remotes
rclone listremotes 2>/dev/null || echo "NO REMOTES CONFIGURED"
If rclone is NOT installed
Guide the user to install:
macOS
brew install rclone
Linux (script install)
curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash
Or via package manager
sudo apt install rclone # Debian/Ubuntu sudo dnf install rclone # Fedora
If NO remotes are configured
Walk the user through interactive configuration:
rclone config
Common provider setup quick reference:
Provider Type Key Settings
AWS S3 s3
access_key_id, secret_access_key, region
Cloudflare R2 s3
access_key_id, secret_access_key, endpoint (account_id.r2.cloudflarestorage.com)
Backblaze B2 b2
account (keyID), key (applicationKey)
DigitalOcean Spaces s3
access_key_id, secret_access_key, endpoint (region.digitaloceanspaces.com)
Google Drive drive
OAuth flow (opens browser)
Dropbox dropbox
OAuth flow (opens browser)
Example: Configure Cloudflare R2
rclone config create r2 s3
provider=Cloudflare
access_key_id=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
secret_access_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY
endpoint=ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
acl=private
Example: Configure AWS S3
rclone config create aws s3
provider=AWS
access_key_id=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
secret_access_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY
region=us-east-1
Common Operations
Upload single file
rclone copy /path/to/file.mp4 remote:bucket/path/ --progress
Upload directory
rclone copy /path/to/folder remote:bucket/folder/ --progress
Sync directory (mirror, deletes removed files)
rclone sync /local/path remote:bucket/path/ --progress
List remote contents
rclone ls remote:bucket/ rclone lsd remote:bucket/ # directories only
Check what would be transferred (dry run)
rclone copy /path remote:bucket/ --dry-run
Useful Flags
Flag Purpose
--progress
Show transfer progress
--dry-run
Preview without transferring
-v
Verbose output
--transfers=N
Parallel transfers (default 4)
--bwlimit=RATE
Bandwidth limit (e.g., 10M )
--checksum
Compare by checksum, not size/time
--exclude="*.tmp"
Exclude patterns
--include="*.mp4"
Include only matching
--min-size=SIZE
Skip files smaller than SIZE
--max-size=SIZE
Skip files larger than SIZE
Large File Uploads
For videos and large files, use chunked uploads:
S3 multipart upload (automatic for >200MB)
rclone copy large_video.mp4 remote:bucket/ --s3-chunk-size=64M --progress
Resume interrupted transfers
rclone copy /path remote:bucket/ --progress --retries=5
Verify Upload
Check file exists and matches
rclone check /local/file remote:bucket/file
Get file info
rclone lsl remote:bucket/path/to/file
Troubleshooting
Test connection
rclone lsd remote:
Debug connection issues
rclone lsd remote: -vv
Check config
rclone config show remote