Docs · Operations

Uninstalling

Nodeau removes only what Nodeau installed, and refuses to remove anything else even if you ask. That is what the ownership ledger is for.

Look first#

Terminal

nodeau uninstall --dry-run

The full plan is printed before anything happens, and each destructive option is named for exactly what it destroys. There is deliberately no flag that means "remove more" without saying what.

The ownership ledger#

When nodeau install runs, it records — at /var/lib/nodeau/install-state.json on Linux — which components it installed and which it adopted because they were already there.

Uninstall reads that ledger. A component Nodeau adopted is left exactly as it was found. This is why nodeau install never re-decides who owns a component when you run it again: changing that record retroactively would change what a later uninstall is allowed to touch.

The removal set is derived from the same manifests the install applies, so a component Nodeau installs and does not know how to remove fails the build rather than being left behind silently.

Ownership is also resolved per entry in the model cache and the runtime directory, and the policy is conservative toward keep: an entry with no manifest is never removed, whatever the ledger says.

Linux#

Terminal

nodeau uninstall

Removed#

Nodeau's controller and node agent
Its custom resource definitions
Its namespaces
Your local endpoint services
The per-device GPU driver and device plugin, if Nodeau installed them

Kept by default#

	Why
Your NVIDIA driver	Always, under every flag. Nodeau never owned it
Your downloaded models	Gigabytes you chose to fetch
Your batch inputs and results	They exist nowhere else
Kubernetes	If it was here before Nodeau
The NVIDIA Container Toolkit	For the same reason
Your API key and account link	Local files you own

Removing more, explicitly#

Flag	What it destroys
`--remove-models`	Downloaded model weights. Gigabytes; you will re-download them
`--remove-batch-data`	Every batch job's input records and results. These exist nowhere else — unlike model weights they cannot be downloaded again
`--remove-managed-k3s`	K3s, and only if Nodeau installed it
`--remove-toolkit`	The NVIDIA Container Toolkit, and only if Nodeau installed it
`--purge`	Every option above at once

Other flags: --dry-run, --yes/-y, --namespace/-n, --state <path>.

Removing Kubernetes#

If Nodeau installed K3s, --remove-managed-k3s removes it. Nodeau also prints the root commands that clean up what a K3s removal can leave behind — for example directories under /run — for you to run yourself.

macOS#

A Mac runs standalone — it never joined a fleet, so there is no membership to remove and no other machine to tell.

Terminal

nodeau uninstall --dry-run
nodeau uninstall

It removes what nodeau install put here and nothing else. A model runtime you assembled yourself, a PATH line you wrote, or a copy of nodeau you manage are all left alone, and the plan says so.

Flag	What it does
`--dry-run`	Show what would be removed and stop
`--yes`, `-y`	Do not ask anything
`--models`	Also delete downloaded model weights
`--keep-path`	Leave the `PATH` line in your login profile
`--state <path>`	Path to the install ledger

Your downloaded models are kept unless you pass --models. Uninstalling the software and throwing away gigabytes of downloads are different decisions.

Your account and your fleet#

nodeau uninstall is a local operation. It does not:

remove the installation from your Nodeau account,
remove the machine from a fleet,
cancel a subscription.

Do those separately:

Terminal

nodeau logout                       # unlink this machine locally
nodeau fleet remove <machine>       # from the machine that runs the control plane

Removing a machine from a fleet is done from another machine, because a machine that is gone cannot do it for itself. See removing a machine.

What is left behind, on purpose#

After a plain uninstall you will still have:

~/.local/bin/nodeau and nodeau-fleet — the binaries the bootstrap installed into a directory you own. Delete them yourself if you want them gone.
~/.config/nodeau/ — your API key, account link and entitlement.
/var/lib/nodeau/models/ — your downloaded weights.
/var/lib/nodeau/batch/ — your batch records.
Your NVIDIA driver, Secure Boot configuration, bootloader and partitions, untouched.

Checking afterwards#

Terminal

nodeau doctor --host-only

On a machine Nodeau has been removed from, NODEAU_NOT_INSTALLED is the correct answer rather than a fault.

Documentation for the current published build, the beta channel. Something here wrong or missing? Tell us — a report from a machine we have never seen is the most useful thing we get.