Uninstall

uninstall has two shapes: remove a single component, or remove yerd itself.

Command	Description
yerd uninstall php <VERSION>	Uninstall a PHP version (removes its files; blocked if a site uses it). See PHP.
yerd uninstall tool <ID>	Uninstall a dev tool (composer, node, bun). See Tooling.
yerd uninstall	Full uninstall — remove yerd entirely from this machine.
yerd uninstall --yes, -y	Full uninstall without the confirmation prompt (for scripts / the desktop app).

The component forms (php / tool) are daemon-mediated and documented on their own pages. The rest of this page covers the bare yerd uninstall — the full self-uninstall.

Full uninstall

yerd uninstall with no subcommand removes everything yerd put on the machine. It is local (it doesn't go through the daemon — it stops the daemon as part of the teardown) and it prompts for confirmation before touching anything.

sudo yerd uninstall          # recommended: also reverts the elevate system changes
yerd uninstall               # without root: removes everything except the elevate changes
yerd uninstall --yes         # skip the prompt (non-interactive)

It removes, in order:

1. System changes from elevate — the CA in the system trust store, the DNS resolver entry, and (macOS) the pf port redirect. Root only — see Run it with sudo.
2. The daemon — stops and disables the per-user service (systemd --user / launchd) and reaps the running yerdd (which in turn stops its PHP-FPM pools and any managed services).
3. The PATH entry — removes the yerd block from your shell startup files (the same block yerd path manages).
4. Config, data, and cache — the yerd.toml config, installed PHP versions, dev tools, downloads, the local CA, and the runtime socket directory.
5. The binaries — yerd, yerdd, and yerd-helper. A package install is left for your package manager instead (sudo apt purge yerd on Debian/Ubuntu, sudo pacman -R yerd on Arch) — yerd never rms package-managed files.

When something can't be removed automatically, it's listed at the end as a leftover to handle manually.

Run it with sudo

The elevate changes (trust store, resolver, ports) need root to reverse — and they can't be reversed after yerd is uninstalled, because the yerd-helper binary is gone. So:

• sudo yerd uninstall reverts those system changes, then removes everything else (resolved for your real user, even under sudo).
• yerd uninstall (no root) prints a clear warning, lists the exact manual commands to undo the system changes later, and then removes everything else.

Undo elevation first, or just use sudo

If you started without root, the simplest path is to run sudo yerd uninstall so the trust/resolver/port changes are cleaned up automatically. Otherwise follow the printed manual steps (they include your TLD and the CA fingerprint so the leftover CA stays identifiable). See Elevation & Privileges.

Confirmation & non-interactive use

You'll be asked to confirm before anything is removed. Pass --yes (-y) to skip the prompt in scripts. With no TTY and no --yes, the command refuses rather than destroying anything silently.

Platform support

Full uninstall is supported on macOS and Linux. The desktop app itself (the .app / .deb / .pkg.tar.zst) is removed the usual way for your platform — drag to Trash on macOS, or sudo apt purge yerd (Debian/Ubuntu) / sudo pacman -R yerd (Arch) on Linux.

See also

• Elevation — the elevate / unelevate changes that the full uninstall reverts under sudo.
• PHP and Tooling — the component uninstall php / uninstall tool forms.
• Getting Started → Uninstall.