How to remove agent-marketplace safely

Remove the files agent-marketplace generated in a repository or on your machine, without deleting your own files. The deinit command does the removal. --scope chooses what it covers:

Scope	What deinit removes	What --purge-config also deletes
user (the default)	Machine-wide generated output, plus cached registry clones that your organization's configuration does not use	~/.agents/config.yaml and ~/.agents/lock.yaml
repo	Generated output in the current repository	.agents/config.yaml and .agents/lock.yaml
local	The same repository output as repo	.agents/config.local.yaml and .agents/lock.local.yaml

Prerequisites

• agent-marketplace on your PATH.
• For repository removal, a terminal open inside the repository.
• Optional: run agent-marketplace backup create first to archive the machine-wide harness folders. deinit does not create one for you. See How to back up and restore machine resources.

Remove from a repository

1. Preview what deinit would remove:

   agent-marketplace deinit --scope repo --dry-run

   The preview lists the generated files and folders and ends with a line such as Would remove 4 managed artifact(s). Nothing changes on disk.

2. Run the removal:

   agent-marketplace deinit --scope repo

   The run prints Removed N managed artifact(s), or No managed artifacts to remove when there is nothing to remove. It does not list the individual files. It deletes the generated harness output in the repository and nothing else. Configuration files, lockfiles, organization policy, and the durable ownership state stay in place, so a later agent-marketplace sync can put everything back.

3. Delete the repository configuration too, only if you no longer want it:

   agent-marketplace deinit --scope repo --purge-config

   After the artifact summary, it prints Removed config <path> and Removed lock <path>, one line for each file that existed, so an absent file produces no line. It removes the .agents folder if it is left empty. It does not touch .agents/config.local.yaml or .agents/lock.local.yaml; delete those with --scope local --purge-config. Files that your configuration pulls in with include are not deleted.

4. Run git status, which lists the deleted files under Changes not staged for commit. Review them and commit the changes you want to keep.

Remove from a machine

1. Preview the machine-wide removal:

   agent-marketplace deinit --scope user --dry-run

   The preview lists the generated output and each cache folder it would delete (Would remove cache ...).

2. Run the removal:

   agent-marketplace deinit --scope user

   The run prints Removed N managed artifact(s) (or No managed artifacts to remove), then one Removed cache <path> line for each cache folder it deletes. It removes the machine-wide generated output and the cached registry clones under ~/.cache/agent-marketplace/ that your organization's configuration does not use. Clones that your repositories still use come back on their next sync. Resources that your organization's configuration still selects stay installed, with the cache they need. If one of them is missing, deinit writes it again.

3. Delete your personal configuration, only if you no longer want it:

   agent-marketplace deinit --scope user --purge-config

   After the artifact and cache output, it prints Removed config <path> and Removed lock <path> for each file that existed. This deletes ~/.agents/config.yaml and ~/.agents/lock.yaml.

What deinit leaves alone

• The durable state folder ${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/agent-marketplace/, which holds the ownership state and safety backups for shared configuration files.
• Backup archives under ~/.agent-marketplace/backups/.
• Files you wrote yourself inside harness folders, and handwritten entries, comments, and unrelated settings in shared configuration files such as .mcp.json.
• The organization configuration and lock under /etc/agent-marketplace/.
• Internal transaction files that --purge-config uses to coordinate its deletions.

Troubleshooting

• deinit prints warning: could not read config: your configuration could not be loaded, so deinit assumed the default installation mode. Output installed in the other mode (symlinks or regular files) may remain. Fix the configuration and run deinit again.
• error: could not resolve organization-owned artifacts; refusing teardown: a user-scope deinit must work out which resources the organization still requires before it removes anything. It stops without changes when it cannot. If the organization lock is invalid, the organization administrator has to repair or regenerate it. Do not remove or edit organization policy yourself.
• Generated folders remain after deinit: run agent-marketplace status to see which scope still selects them. Repository output needs --scope repo, and machine output needs --scope user.