---
title: "Uninstall Commentware"
description: "Remove the extension, the server and everything the installer wrote, and choose whether your comments go too."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://commentware.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Uninstall Commentware

Remove what the installer put on this computer: the extension's files, the
server and its services, and the lines that put `commentware` on your `PATH`.
Do this when you are done with Commentware here, or before you install it a
different way.

## Prerequisites

- **Commentware installed with the installer**, from [Install the Chrome
  extension](/docs/install/) or [Install a server](/docs/install-server/). The
  installer is in `~/Commentware/bin` (`%USERPROFILE%\Commentware\bin` on
  Windows).

## Run the uninstall

1. Run the installer with `--uninstall`. On macOS and Linux:

```sh
   ~/Commentware/bin/commentware-installer-cli --uninstall
```

   On Windows, in PowerShell:

```powershell
   & "$env:USERPROFILE\Commentware\bin\commentware-installer-cli.exe" --uninstall
```

   If it stops with `Nothing has been removed` and names `--install server`,
   the server is too old to be asked to stop. Run the install command you
   installed with, which updates the server, then run the uninstall again.

2. If it asks `Delete your Commentware data as well?`, type `y` and press Enter
   to delete every comment, screenshot, picture, drawing and user in the data
   directory it names. Press Enter alone to keep them. With no terminal to ask
   on, it keeps them.
   Learn more about [what Commentware stores](/docs/what-commentware-stores/).

   > **Caution:** A `y` cannot be undone. The database is the only copy of the
   > comments, and nothing else holds it.

3. Wait while it stops every Commentware server and service on this computer
   for your account, then removes the files. It prints what it removed:

```text
   Stopping every Commentware server and service.

   No Commentware service is installed.
   Stopped the Commentware server at http://127.0.0.1:7042 (pid 41822).
 database  /home/alex/.local/share/commentware/data.db

   Removed:

    /home/alex/.local/share/commentware
    /home/alex/.config/commentware
    /home/alex/Commentware/extension
    /home/alex/Commentware/server
    /home/alex/Commentware/env
    /home/alex/Commentware/invite
    /home/alex/Commentware/bin/commentware
    /home/alex/Commentware/bin/commentware-installer-cli
    /home/alex/Commentware/bin
    /home/alex/Commentware
    the PATH line in /home/alex/.profile
    the PATH line in /home/alex/.bashrc
    the PATH line in /home/alex/.zshenv
```

   If it stops with `Nothing else has been removed`, a server or a service could
   not be stopped. The lines above that sentence are the server's own, and say
   why. Deal with that, then run the uninstall again.

4. In Chrome, open `chrome://extensions` in the `Commentware` profile and
   select **Remove** on Commentware. To remove the whole profile instead,
   delete it from Chrome's profile menu. Nothing outside Chrome can remove an
   extension.

5. On macOS and Linux, close every terminal you opened since the install. Each
   keeps `~/Commentware/bin` on its `PATH` until it closes.

6. On Windows, once the uninstall has finished, run the `Remove-Item` command it
   lists under `Left in place:`. The installer cannot delete itself while it
   runs, so `%USERPROFILE%\Commentware` stays until then.

The uninstall removes only what the installer wrote. Everything else in your
shell startup files stays as it is. A file in `~/Commentware` that it does not
recognize stays too, and the uninstall lists it under `Left in place:`. A service from a server
installed with a package manager is removed too, and the server's own lines in
step 3 name it.

Before it stops the server, the uninstall takes the server out of every AI
agent's MCP client it connected — the ones [`mcp connect`](/docs/server/commands/#mcp-connect)
wrote a key into — and revokes each key. If `mcp disconnect --all` does not
finish, the uninstall lists it under `Left in place:` and goes on.

When your config file keeps screenshots, pictures and drawings in a directory
outside the data directory, the question in step 2 names that directory, and a
`y` does not delete it. The uninstall prints its path under `Left in place:`,
and you delete it yourself.

## Check that it worked

The uninstall ends with no `Could not remove:` list. On macOS and Linux, run
this straight after it:

```sh
echo $?
```

It prints `0`. In PowerShell, `$LASTEXITCODE` is `0`. In a new terminal,
`commentware` is no longer found, unless a package manager installed another
copy of the server.

## Next steps

- [Install the Chrome extension](/docs/install/): install it again.