unadopt — remove the apache-steward framework from an adopter repo

The reverse of adopt.md. Removes the framework artefacts the adopt flow installed — gitignored snapshot, committed lock, gitignored local lock, framework-skill symlinks in every active target dir (agents.md — .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .github/skills/, plus any present holdout), the matching .gitignore blocks, post-checkout hook, the adoption sections in README.md / AGENTS.md / CONTRIBUTING.md, and the committed setup skill itself.

Critical — tear down all target dirs. Removing only the .claude/skills/ + .github/skills/ pair would orphan the .agents/skills/magpie-* links (and any holdout's) — dangling symlinks into a snapshot that no longer exists, plus stale .gitignore blocks. The removal must cover every active target dir per agents.md.

By default the adopter-authored .apache-magpie-overrides/ directory is preserved — it contains hand-written customisation that is not the framework's to delete. Pass --purge-overrides to remove it too.

This sub-action is destructive on disk and on the index. It always surfaces the full removal plan first and requires one explicit confirmation before any write.

When to use

• The project decided to stop using apache-steward.
• The repo was adopted experimentally and the experiment is over.
• The adoption was scoped to a fork / branch and that branch is being cleaned up before merge.

If the goal is to change install method or version, use /magpie-setup upgrade instead — that path preserves overrides and re-uses the existing wiring.

If the goal is to temporarily detach for debugging (e.g. test what a skill looks like without overrides), edit the relevant override file rather than unadopting.

Inputs

• --purge-overrides — also git rm -r the .apache-magpie-overrides/ directory. Default: preserve. Surfaces uncommitted edits on any override file before removal — the user confirms once more if any are present.
• dry-run — print the removal plan and stop. No writes, no confirmation prompt.

Step 0 — Pre-flight

1. Confirm we are in a git repo (git rev-parse --show-toplevel).

2. Confirm we are in the main checkout, not a git worktree. Compare git rev-parse --git-dir against git rev-parse --git-common-dir. If different, stop with:

   "unadopt runs in the main checkout, not a worktree. Unadoption removes the shared snapshot every worktree points at; running from a worktree would leave the main and other worktrees in a half-removed state. From the main: cd <main-path> && /magpie-setup unadopt. To undo just this worktree's symlink without touching the main, rm <worktree>/.apache-magpie manually."

3. Confirm we are not in apache/airflow-steward itself (git remote get-url origin); refuse if it resolves to the framework — the framework is not "adopted into" itself.

4. Confirm <committed-lock> (.apache-magpie.lock) is present. If missing, the repo is not adopted — surface and stop. (If only the snapshot is present without a committed lock, the adopter ran the install recipe but never completed /magpie-setup adopt; treat that as not-yet- adopted and stop with the same message.)

5. Compute the active target set per agents.md: the canonical .agents/skills/, the .claude/skills/ + .github/skills/ relay pair, and any holdout dir present. There is no skills-dir convention to detect — every target carries magpie-* symlinks in the same canonical-plus-relay shape.

Step 1 — Inventory what was installed

Build a concrete list of every artefact the unadopt flow would touch. The inventory drives the plan in Step 2 and distinguishes present from absent (skip absent items silently — adopt is configurable, so not every adopter has every artefact).

For the overrides directory: distinguish the framework-scaffold files (README.md, user.md from adopt.md Step 9 / 9b) from adopter-authored files (e.g. pr-management-triage.md, any user.md filled in beyond the scaffold). Also check git status -- .apache-magpie-overrides/ for uncommitted edits — those are surfaced separately in Step 2.

Step 2 — Surface the removal plan

Render the inventory as a single table so the user can read the blast radius at a glance:

The following will be REMOVED:

  Gitignored (no commit needed):
    .apache-magpie/                      (snapshot, ~N MB)
    .apache-magpie.local.lock
    .agents/skills/magpie-<skill-1>      → .apache-magpie/skills/<skill-1>/   (canonical)
    .agents/skills/magpie-<skill-2>      → ...
    .claude/skills/magpie-<skill-1>      → ../../.agents/skills/magpie-<skill-1>   (relay)
    .github/skills/magpie-<skill-1>      → ../../.agents/skills/magpie-<skill-1>   (relay)
    <holdout>/skills/magpie-<skill-1>    → ../../.agents/skills/magpie-<skill-1>   (relay; e.g. .windsurf/skills/, .goose/skills/ — only if present)
    .git/hooks/post-checkout              (if it contains the steward recipe)
    # Target dirs (per agents.md): canonical .agents/skills/, the
    #   .claude/skills/ + .github/skills/ relay pair, plus any present
    #   holdout — each carries one magpie-<n> entry per linked skill.

  Committed (will show in `git status`):
    .apache-magpie.lock                  (the project's pin)
    .gitignore                            (the entries listed in adopt.md Step 7)
    README.md                             (the `## Agent-assisted contribution (apache-steward)` section)
    AGENTS.md                             (the `## apache-steward framework` section, if present)
    .agents/skills/magpie-setup/         (this skill itself — self-destructive; canonical copy)
    .claude/skills/magpie-setup          (relay symlink)
    .github/skills/magpie-setup          (relay symlink)

The following will be PRESERVED:

    .apache-magpie-overrides/           (M file(s); pass `--purge-overrides` to remove)
    ~/.config/apache-magpie/user.md     (per-user; shared with other adopters on this machine — remove manually if this was your last adoption)

Surface the ~/.config/apache-magpie/user.md line only if that file is actually present on disk. If it is absent (or the operator drove user.md resolution via $APACHE_STEWARD_USER_CONFIG / the legacy per-project location), omit the line. The framework never touches the per-user file regardless of --purge-overrides — it is shared across every adopter project on the operator's machine and unadopting from this project does not imply they have stopped using apache-steward elsewhere.

If --purge-overrides was passed, move .apache-magpie-overrides/ into the removed section and list its files explicitly so the adopter sees what custom content is about to go.

If git status -- .apache-magpie-overrides/ showed uncommitted edits, prepend a warning above the table:

⚠ Uncommitted edits in .apache-magpie-overrides/:
    <list of files>

  --purge-overrides would delete these along with the directory.
  Commit, stash, or copy them out before continuing.

If any magpie-* symlink in any active target dir (canonical .agents/skills/, a holdout, or the .claude//.github/ relay pair) resolves to a path outside the adoption — i.e. a canonical entry that does not resolve into <snapshot-dir>/, a relay that does not resolve through .agents/skills/, or an adopter who committed a real skill at the same name post-adoption — list it under a separate Preserved (not framework-owned) subsection. The unadopt flow never deletes content it does not own.

Step 3 — Confirm

Ask the user to confirm the plan with a single structured prompt (when the harness offers a structured-question tool such as Claude Code's AskUserQuestion). Default selection is abort, not proceed — destructive defaults bite.

Free-form chat is the fallback: paraphrase the plan, ask "proceed with removal? (yes / no)", treat anything other than yes as abort.

If dry-run was passed, skip the confirmation entirely and stop after surfacing the plan.

Step 4 — Execute removal in safe order

Run the deletions in the order below. The order matters: artefacts that depend on others come out first, so a half-completed unadopt never leaves a dangling symlink pointing at a deleted snapshot.

1. Framework-skill symlinks — in every active target dir. For each entry in the inventory, rm the magpie-* symlink. Cover every active target dir (agents.md), not just the .claude//.github/ pair — skipping .agents/skills/ or a holdout would orphan its magpie-* links once the snapshot is removed in step 3.

   • Canonical target (.agents/skills/) — remove each .agents/skills/magpie-<n> (the link into the snapshot).
   • Relay targets (.claude/skills/, .github/skills/, any present holdout) — remove each <target>/skills/magpie-<n> (the relay into .agents/skills/).

   The target dirs themselves (.agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .github/skills/, any holdout) are adopter-owned and not removed by unadopt — they may predate framework adoption and serve the adopter's own native skills too. Only the magpie-* entries come out, never the directory.

   Never touch a non-symlink at the same path.

2. Post-checkout hook. Remove only if its content matches the steward recipe verbatim (i.e. the hook the adopt flow wrote — a single ~/.claude/scripts/sandbox-add-project-root.sh invocation guarded by the -x test; see adopt.md Step 10 for the exact text). If the hook contains additional adopter logic, surface that, leave the hook in place, and tell the user which line to delete by hand. Hooks that still contain the obsolete /magpie-setup verify --auto-fix-symlinks line (a Claude Code slash command that does not work from a shell hook — removed in a later framework release) should be replaced with the current Step 10 template.

3. Snapshot directory. rm -rf <snapshot-dir>/.

4. Local lock. rm <local-lock>.

5. .gitignore entries. Read <repo-root>/.gitignore, remove exactly the lines from adopt.md Step 7 that are present, and leave any adopter-added entries (e.g. unrelated rules near the adoption block) untouched. Do not collapse blank lines — the diff stays minimal. Exception: leave __pycache__/ and *.pyc in place — they are stock Python entries that most repos carry independently of the framework, so removing them would break the adopter's own Python ignores. Only drop them if they sit unambiguously inside the steward-managed block (under the same comment header the adopt flow wrote) and the repo has no other Python sources.

6. Doc sections. For each of README.md, AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md that contains an adoption section, remove the section. The boundaries are the section heading (e.g. ## Agent-assisted contribution (apache- steward)) and the next ##-level heading (or EOF). Surface the proposed diff (git diff form) to the user before writing; one batched confirmation for the whole doc set, not per file.

7. Committed lock. git rm <committed-lock>.

8. Overrides directory (only if --purge-overrides). git rm -r .apache-magpie-overrides/.

9. setup skill itself. git rm -r the canonical copy .agents/skills/magpie-setup/ and its relay symlinks .claude/skills/magpie-setup and .github/skills/magpie-setup. After this step the running skill has deleted its own committed source. Future invocations of /magpie-setup will resolve to nothing — the adopter has to re-run the install recipe in docs/setup/install-recipes.md to re-adopt.

Each step is independently surfaced as it runs (one ✓ Removed <path> line per artefact), so a mid-flow abort leaves a clean record of what made it out.

Step 5 — Sanity check

After the deletions, verify the post-state:

• <snapshot-dir>/ does not exist.
• <committed-lock> and <local-lock> do not exist.
• No magpie-* symlinks remain in any active target dir (canonical .agents/skills/, the .claude//.github/ relay pair, or any holdout) — neither dangling canonical links into the removed <snapshot-dir>/ nor relays into the now-empty .agents/skills/.
• .gitignore no longer contains the steward entries.
• The doc sections are gone from the affected files.
• .agents/skills/magpie-setup/ and its .claude/.github relays do not exist.
• If --purge-overrides: .apache-magpie-overrides/ does not exist.
• If not --purge-overrides: .apache-magpie-overrides/ does exist (unchanged).

Any ✗ here is a bug — surface it and stop.

Output to the user

A summary of what was removed + what remains:

✓ Snapshot removed:        .apache-magpie/
✓ Locks removed:           .apache-magpie.lock, .apache-magpie.local.lock
✓ Symlinks removed:        <count> across every active target dir — canonical .agents/skills/ + the .claude/skills/ + .github/skills/ relay pair + any present holdout
✓ Post-checkout hook:      removed (or: preserved — contained extra adopter logic)
✓ Doc sections removed:    README.md[, AGENTS.md][, CONTRIBUTING.md]
✓ .gitignore cleaned:      <N> entries removed
✓ setup skill:     removed (this skill self-destructed)

Preserved:
  .apache-magpie-overrides/   (M files; pass `--purge-overrides` to remove)
  ~/.config/apache-magpie/user.md   (per-user; shared with other adopters on this machine — remove manually if this was your last adoption)
  .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .github/skills/   (target dirs — adopter-owned; only the magpie-* entries were removed)
  <list of any non-steward-owned content the plan flagged>

Staged for commit (you'll see in `git status`):
  D  .apache-magpie.lock
  M  .gitignore
  M  README.md
  M  AGENTS.md             (if section was present)
  D  .agents/skills/magpie-setup/...   (+ .claude/.github relay symlinks)

To re-adopt later: follow docs/setup/install-recipes.md in the
framework repo at https://github.com/apache/airflow-steward.

Suggest the user open the diff (git diff --cached) before committing — the unadopt flow's .gitignore edit and the README.md / AGENTS.md patches are the most likely to need a human re-read.

Hard rules

• Never delete what the adopt flow did not install. Symlinks pointing outside <snapshot-dir>/, hooks with custom adopter logic, .gitignore entries not in the adopt template, and content at any of the doc-section paths that isn't bounded by the adoption heading — all preserved + flagged.
• Never silently delete .apache-magpie-overrides/. The default is preserve. --purge-overrides is opt-in and requires an additional confirmation if uncommitted edits are present.
• Always surface the plan before writing. No --yes-style auto-apply flag. Destructive defaults bite; the one-confirmation gate is the framework's user-trust invariant (see Hard rules in SKILL.md).
• Removal order is fixed. Symlinks before snapshot, doc-section patches before .gitignore edit, committed lock before the setup skill itself. The order guarantees no intermediate state has a dangling reference.

Failure modes

• <committed-lock> missing → repo not adopted. Stop with a pointer at /magpie-setup adopt.
• <snapshot-dir>/ contains committed content (anti-pattern: adopter put real files inside the gitignored snapshot path before adoption) → surface, do not rm -rf, ask the user to relocate the content first.
• Symlink target resolves outside <snapshot-dir>/ → preserved + flagged in Step 2. The adopt flow never installs such symlinks; the adopter created it post- adoption.
• Post-checkout hook has extra logic → preserved; the unadopt flow names the line to remove by hand.
• .gitignore entry overlaps adopter rules (e.g. the adopter also has /.apache-magpie/foo for unrelated reasons) → only the exact adopt-template lines are removed; adopter rules stay.
• Stock Python entries (__pycache__/, *.pyc) → left in place by default per Step 5; they predate adoption in most repos, so removing them would break the adopter's own Python ignores.
• Adopter ran unadopt then realised they wanted to keep override content → the override directory was preserved by default; if they passed --purge-overrides and confirmed past the uncommitted-edits warning, the only recourse is git restore from a pre-unadopt commit. The flow makes this expensive on purpose.
• setup skill resolution fails after self- removal → expected. Re-adoption goes via the install recipe in docs/setup/install-recipes.md, not via the now-deleted skill.