ak uninstall

ak uninstall removes files tracked by an AgentKit project manifest. It does not delete unowned project content.

Syntax

ak uninstall [path] [options]

Before you run

--dry-run always previews and exits 3, even with --yes.
In a TTY, apply mode asks for confirmation unless --yes is set. Decline or end-of-input exits 3.
JSON, quiet, and non-interactive execution do not prompt. Without --yes, they refuse mutation and exit 3.
--force permits deletion of modified owned files, but still requires confirmation. It never deletes orphan files.

Arguments

[path] selects the project directory and takes precedence over --project-dir. Without either, the command searches the current directory and its parents. The command has no aliases.

Options

Option	Default	Purpose
`--dry-run`	`false`	Preview classified file actions.
`--force`	`false`	Permit deletion of modified owned files.
`--keep-registry`	`false`	Keep the global project registry entry.
`--project-dir <path>`	Empty	Select the project directory.

Examples

Preview removal:

ak uninstall . --dry-run

Remove clean owned files without a prompt:

ak uninstall . --yes

Remove modified owned files after a snapshot:

ak uninstall . --force --yes

Human output lists clean, modified, orphan, and missing files. With --json, stdout uses the shared envelope with "kind": "uninstall". Its data object contains project_dir, dry_run, files, deleted, skipped, and orphans, plus snapshot_id when created.

Items in files currently use the exact keys RelPath, Class, WillDelete, Deleted, and Skipped. Class is numeric: 0 clean, 1 modified, 2 orphan, and 3 missing. Errors go to stderr. A modified-file refusal can include a human summary before the structured JSON error unless quiet mode is used.

Exit status

Code	Meaning
`0`	Confirmed removal completed.
`1`	Project discovery, snapshot, filesystem, or partial deletion failed.
`2`	Flags or path arguments are invalid.
`3`	Dry-run completed, confirmation was declined, or non-interactive apply lacked `--yes`.
`6`	Modified owned files require `--force`.

Effects, safety, and recovery

The command classifies files twice before deletion. Clean owned files are deleted; modified files require --force; missing files are skipped; orphan files remain untouched. It removes the ownership manifest and lock, then removes .agentkit only when empty. Other files in that directory remain.

Apply mode takes a bounded pre-uninstall AgentKit snapshot before deleting sequentially. A failure can therefore leave partial removal. Use the reported snapshot and inspect the filesystem before retrying. Project-registry removal is best effort and can be disabled with --keep-registry. The command performs no network, authentication, entitlement, cache, or child-process work.

Use ak init to recreate project metadata and ak doctor to inspect recovery state. The snapshot is not a full-project backup.