Full Removal When You Mean It

Press Release

abcd supports /abcd:ahoy destroy — a deeper uninstall that goes beyond removing the marker block. When you decide abcd isn't right for a project, destroy cleanly removes the marker block, the /usr/local/bin/abcd symlink, AND the entire .abcd/ namespace (including lifeboat, dev artefacts, logbook, and config). The gitignore allowlist entries get reverted. abcd offers a final summary of what's about to be deleted with hard confirmation, then walks away. The danger is encoded in the verb itself — same convention as rm -rf, git push --force, terraform destroy.

"Marker-only uninstall was great for 'I'll be back' moments," said Jack, consultant. "But sometimes a project leaves abcd entirely. Now I can /abcd:ahoy destroy and clean up properly without rm -rf'ing manually and missing things."

Why This Matters

abcd's uninstall is intentionally lightweight — /abcd:ahoy uninstall removes only the BEGIN/END marker block from CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md and the symlink. Everything in .abcd/ stays put. This is correct for the common "ahoy then change my mind" case: re-running ahoy resurrects markers from existing config without re-asking.

But for projects that genuinely leave abcd (acquired, deprecated, pivot), the lightweight uninstall leaves lifeboat data, logbook reports, and visibility-driven gitignore entries that no longer make sense. destroy is the nuclear option — explicit, confirmed, complete. Two-tier on the same verb (ahoy) keeps the naming surface small while making the danger gradient legible.

What's In Scope

• /abcd:ahoy destroy sub-verb (two-tier with the uninstall sub-verb)
• Hard confirmation showing exact list of files/directories to delete
• Revert .gitignore allowlist entries added by ahoy (back to project's own state)
• Removes scheduled dev-sync jobs if installed (forward-compatible with itd-13)
• Final summary report
• Documentation update: 04-surfaces/01-ahoy.md documents both sub-verbs side-by-side with the danger gradient explicit (and uninstall's description rewords to "reversible marker-only removal" so the distinction is discoverable from bare /abcd:ahoy status+help output).

What's Out of Scope

• /abcd:purge as a separate command — explicitly rejected. Two sub-verbs on one command (with a destroy that names its own danger) keeps the surface small. The earlier /abcd:purge working name is preserved here for git-blame continuity, but the shipping name is the destroy sub-verb on /abcd:ahoy.
• "Soft destroy" (archive .abcd/ to .abcd-archive/ instead of delete) — a possible future extension
• Cross-project destroy ("remove abcd from all my repos") — requires global state we don't yet have
• Forced destroy without confirmation — destroy is destructive; always confirm

Acceptance Criteria

Required (per the itd-1 discipline). At least one Given-When-Then bullet describing the verifiable bar for "shipped".

• Given an abcd-installed repo with a populated .abcd/ directory and ahoy-managed marker block in CLAUDE.md, when the user runs /abcd:ahoy destroy, then abcd shows a hard-confirmation prompt enumerating every file/directory queued for deletion (marker block, symlink, .abcd/ namespace contents, .gitignore allowlist entries) before any deletion occurs.
• Given the user confirms the destroy prompt, when the command completes, then the repo no longer contains the abcd marker block in CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md, the /usr/local/bin/abcd symlink is removed, the .abcd/ directory is fully removed, and .gitignore ahoy-managed allowlist entries are reverted to their pre-ahoy state.
• Given the user declines the destroy confirmation, when the command exits, then no files or directories are modified and the command's exit code reflects the user's cancellation (non-zero, distinct from error codes).
• Given scheduled dev-sync jobs were installed (per itd-13), when /abcd:ahoy destroy runs successfully, then the scheduled jobs are also removed and the final summary report enumerates the removed schedule entries.
• Given a repo with a clean abcd installation, when the user runs /abcd:ahoy uninstall (marker-only) followed later by /abcd:ahoy destroy, then destroy still removes the residual .abcd/ namespace contents that uninstall left behind — the two sub-verbs are composable, not mutually exclusive.

SOTA

Surveyed on 2026-10-23; sources, evidence tiers and the local fit risks are in the install-update-release SOTA note.

• Preview, then tiers, then honesty about what is left is the convention: mise implode --dry-run previews; mise implode "removes the CLI, installed tools, cache and state", keeps "the user config directory unless you pass --config", and tells the person to remove shell activation lines themselves. rustup has one verb (rustup self uninstall); uv has none and documents the steps, including removing the binaries a pre-0.5.0 install left in ~/.cargo/bin, which an upgrade does not remove.
• "Zap" names the danger and admits collateral: Homebrew's brew uninstall --zap is to "Remove all files associated with a cask. May remove files which are shared between applications".
• Binary and state are removed in separate steps, with a warning on the second: the harness's uninstall page removes the binary per install method and then, under a warning that it "will delete all your settings... and session history", the configuration, noting that other installed clients recreate the directory.
• Destroy-class verbs plan first: terraform destroy is apply -destroy, and plan -destroy shows "the proposed destroy changes without executing them"; the drafted enumerated confirmation matches.
• Two scopes, not one: every tool separates the project's files from the person's machine-level state. This intent is a repository destroy; the machine-level counterpart (the user-level home, path-entry, the plugin data directory the harness keeps across updates) has no verb and is out of this intent's scope.

Path 2 — native, shaped to mise implode: keep the enumerated confirmation, add --dry-run as a first-class flag, keep the design record by default behind a flag that names it (the "config" tier every surveyed tool keeps; proposed answer to the open question below), and have the summary name what destroy cannot remove (shell-profile lines, commits in git history that still carry .abcd/, machine-level state) with the one command for each. The 2026-05-07 naming ruling is untouched. The independent fit-challenge runs at plan time.

Open Questions

• (SOTA 2026-10-23) Does destroy take --dry-run, and does a misspelt flag refuse rather than run (unrecognized input never writes)?
• (SOTA 2026-10-23) Is .abcd/development/ kept by default and removed only when a flag names it, the way mise keeps config unless --config? This is the proposed answer to the design-record question below, for the product thinker to rule on.
• (SOTA 2026-10-23) Is a machine-level removal (the user-level home, path-entry, the plugin data directory) filed as its own intent, since no repository-scoped verb may reach it?
• ~~Should destroy offer to back up .abcd/lifeboat/ somewhere first (since it may be valuable independently)?~~ Moot under adr-35: a lifeboat is written out of tree, to a destination disembark pack is handed, so destroy finds none inside the repository.
• Same question for .abcd/development/ (it's design history, not just runtime state)?
• Naming — resolved 2026-05-07. Two-tier on /abcd:ahoy: /abcd:ahoy uninstall is reversible marker-only removal (re-running ahoy re-installs cleanly); the deeper destroy surfaces as /abcd:ahoy destroy — fits the nautical metaphor (scuttling a ship has a name and a weight) and the verb's danger is encoded in the verb itself. The uninstall description ("reversible marker-only removal") makes the distinction discoverable. Plan-review for this intent treats this naming as decided rather than re-opening.

Amendments

Amended by itd-2610030814013772 (2026-10-03, its decisions 4 and 8): the marker block lives in AGENTS.md; a block an earlier setup planted in CLAUDE.md is still found and stripped, so the CLAUDE.md wording here describes projects set up before that change.

Audit Notes

Empty. Populated by intent-fidelity-reviewer when intent moves to shipped/.