Uninstall, purge, or remove the Slowave package fully

Remove Slowave integrations while keeping your memories, wipe all local data, or uninstall the package entirely — with dry-run support at every step.

Slowave gives you three distinct removal operations so you can choose exactly what to remove. slowave uninstall strips the client integrations and services but preserves your local memories. slowave purge goes further and removes the database too. Finally, uninstalling the package with pipx or Homebrew removes the binaries. Always run --dry-run first to confirm what each command will do before writing any changes.

slowave purge is destructive and asks for confirmation. Run slowave purge --dry-run before using it on a machine with memories you want to keep.

Choosing the right command

Command	Removes integrations & services	Removes database & data	Removes *.bak.* backups	Removes package
slowave uninstall	✅	❌	❌	❌
slowave purge	✅	✅	✅	❌
pipx uninstall slowave	❌	❌	❌	✅
brew uninstall slowave	❌	❌	❌	✅

slowave cleanup is retained as a compatibility alias for slowave purge. Use purge in new scripts and documentation.

Step 1 — Remove integrations (uninstall or purge)

Stop using Slowave but keep your memories

slowave uninstall removes every Slowave-managed client integration — MCP entries, lifecycle instruction blocks and hooks, and the daemon, worker, and backup services — while leaving your local data intact.

slowave uninstall --dry-run   # preview first
slowave uninstall

What slowave uninstall preserves:

• The effective runtime root, including the SQLite database and archives
• Setup-created *.bak.* configuration backups
• All unrelated client configuration, MCP entries, hooks, and instruction content
• The installed Slowave package

Remove integrations and all local data

slowave purge performs the same work as uninstall and then removes local Slowave data from the effective runtime root, including the SQLite database and all *.bak.* configuration backups. It asks for confirmation before proceeding.

slowave purge --dry-run   # preview first
slowave purge

Database archives already stored in the runtime root’s backups/ directory are intentionally retained by slowave purge so memories can be recovered. Delete that directory yourself only after confirming those archives are no longer needed.

Step 2 — Manual steps for Cursor and Claude Desktop

Cursor and Claude Desktop lifecycle instructions were pasted into their UIs manually during setup. A command cannot remove them. After running slowave uninstall or slowave purge, remove the Slowave lifecycle block from each client by hand:

Cursor

Open Cursor → Settings → Rules for AI and delete the Slowave lifecycle block. Alternatively, remove the block from your .cursorrules file at the project root.

Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → General → Instructions for Claude and delete the Slowave lifecycle block from the Custom Instructions field.

Step 3 — Remove the package

Slowave does not remove its own Python package. After running uninstall or purge, remove the package with the same installer you used to install it:

pipx

pipx uninstall slowave

Full removal walkthrough

1. Preview with dry-run

   Choose uninstall (keep memories) or purge (remove everything) and preview first:

   slowave uninstall --dry-run
   # or
   slowave purge --dry-run
   
2. Run uninstall or purge

   Apply the removal:

   slowave uninstall
   # or
   slowave purge
   
3. Clean up Cursor and Claude Desktop manually

   If you used Cursor or Claude Desktop, delete the Slowave lifecycle block from their respective instruction surfaces as described above.

4. Uninstall the package

   Remove the Slowave binaries with the original installer:

   pipx uninstall slowave
   # or
   brew uninstall slowave