zhongwei/gh-warrenzhu050413-warren-claude-code-plugin-marketplace-claude-context-orchestrator

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Deleting Skills

Guidance for safely removing Agent Skills from Claude Code.

Quick Deletion Process

1. Locate the Skill

# Personal skills
ls ~/.claude/skills/

# Project skills
ls .claude/skills/

# Find specific skill
find ~/.claude/skills -name "SKILL.md" -path "*/my-skill/*"

2. Create Backup (Recommended)

Before deleting, create a backup:

# Backup entire skill directory
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/my-skill ~/.claude/skills/my-skill.backup

# Or backup to a dedicated location
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/my-skill ~/skill-backups/my-skill-$(date +%Y%m%d)

3. Delete the Skill

# Personal skill
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

# Project skill
rm -rf .claude/skills/my-skill

4. Verify Removal

Restart Claude Code and verify the skill is no longer available:

Ask Claude: "What skills are available?"

Deletion Scenarios

Delete Personal Skill

# Check it exists
ls ~/.claude/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md

# Backup
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/my-skill ~/.claude/skills/my-skill.backup

# Delete
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

# Verify
ls ~/.claude/skills/

No restart needed for personal skills if Claude Code wasn't using them.

Delete Project Skill

For skills in .claude/skills/ that are committed to git:

# Backup first
cp -r .claude/skills/my-skill ~/skill-backups/my-skill-backup

# Remove from git
git rm -rf .claude/skills/my-skill

# Commit
git commit -m "Remove my-skill: no longer needed"

# Push
git push

Important: Notify team members so they can pull the changes and restart Claude Code.

Delete Plugin Skill

Plugin skills are managed by the plugin system. To remove:

Option 1: Disable the plugin

/plugin disable plugin-name@marketplace-name

Option 2: Uninstall the plugin

/plugin uninstall plugin-name@marketplace-name

You cannot delete individual skills from plugins. To modify plugin skills, fork the plugin or contact the plugin author.

Bulk Deletion

Delete Multiple Personal Skills

# List all personal skills
ls ~/.claude/skills/

# Backup all before deletion
cp -r ~/.claude/skills ~/skill-backups/all-skills-$(date +%Y%m%d)

# Delete specific skills
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/skill1
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/skill2
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/skill3

Delete All Unused Skills

# Backup first
cp -r ~/.claude/skills ~/skill-backups/all-skills-$(date +%Y%m%d)

# Review each skill before deleting
for skill in ~/.claude/skills/*; do
    echo "Skill: $(basename $skill)"
    echo "Description:"
    head -n 10 "$skill/SKILL.md"
    read -p "Delete this skill? (y/n) " -n 1 -r
    echo
    if [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
        rm -rf "$skill"
        echo "Deleted: $(basename $skill)"
    fi
done

Backup Strategies

Before Major Cleanup

Create a timestamped backup of all skills:

# Backup all personal skills
tar -czf ~/skill-backups/personal-skills-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz \
    -C ~ .claude/skills

# Backup all project skills (from project root)
tar -czf ~/skill-backups/project-skills-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz \
    .claude/skills

Restore from Backup

# Restore all personal skills
tar -xzf ~/skill-backups/personal-skills-20251016-143022.tar.gz \
    -C ~

# Restore specific skill
cp -r ~/skill-backups/my-skill-20251016 ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

Version Control Best Practices

For Project Skills

When deleting project skills from git repositories:

# Create feature branch
git checkout -b remove-unused-skills

# Remove skill
git rm -rf .claude/skills/old-skill

# Commit with explanation
git commit -m "Remove old-skill: replaced by new-skill

The old-skill has been superseded by new-skill which provides
better performance and additional features.

Team members should:
1. Pull this change
2. Restart Claude Code
3. The skill will no longer be available"

# Push and create PR
git push origin remove-unused-skills

Document Removal

Update project documentation:

# Changelog

## 2025-10-16

### Removed
- **old-skill**: Replaced by new-skill. See migration guide below.

### Migration Guide
If you were using old-skill:
1. Update your workflows to use new-skill instead
2. Key differences: [list changes]
3. See examples: [link to new-skill examples]

Common Deletion Scenarios

Skill No Longer Needed

# Simple removal
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/deprecated-skill

Skill Replaced by Better Version

# Backup old version (might need reference)
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/old-skill ~/skill-backups/old-skill-reference

# Delete old version
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/old-skill

# The new version is already in place
ls ~/.claude/skills/new-skill

Skill Conflicts with Another

If two skills activate on similar triggers:

# Review both skills
cat ~/.claude/skills/skill-a/SKILL.md | head -n 10
cat ~/.claude/skills/skill-b/SKILL.md | head -n 10

# Decide which to keep (usually the more specific one)
# Delete the less useful one
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/skill-b

Experimental Skill Didn't Work Out

# No backup needed for failed experiments
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/experiment-skill

Safety Checks

Before Deleting, Ask:

Is this skill used by others?
- For project skills, check with team
- For personal skills, just you
Is there a migration path?
- If replacing, document new approach
- If removing, explain alternatives
Have I backed it up?
- Can I restore if needed?
- Do I have the content archived?
Will this break workflows?
- Check dependencies
- Update documentation
- Notify affected users

Validation Checklist

Before deleting a project skill:

Created backup
Checked for dependents (other skills referencing this one)
Notified team members
Updated documentation
Committed to version control with clear message
Verified skill is not critical to current workflows

Troubleshooting

Skill Still Appears After Deletion

Problem: Deleted skill still shows up in available skills

Solution: Restart Claude Code to refresh skill registry

Cannot Delete (Permission Denied)

# Check permissions
ls -la ~/.claude/skills/my-skill/

# Fix permissions if needed
chmod -R u+w ~/.claude/skills/my-skill/

# Then delete
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

Accidentally Deleted Important Skill

If you have a backup:

# Restore from backup
cp -r ~/skill-backups/my-skill ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

# Restart Claude Code

If no backup:

Check git history (for project skills)
Check Time Machine or system backups
Recreate from memory or documentation

Team Member Still Has Deleted Skill

For project skills:

# Team member should pull latest changes
git pull

# Remove any local-only changes
rm -rf .claude/skills/deleted-skill

# Restart Claude Code

Post-Deletion Cleanup

Verify Skill List

After deletion, verify skills are as expected: