dsh plugin remove: uninstall a DSH plugin cleanly

The full form of dsh plugin remove is dsh plugin --profile <name> remove <package>, and it removes both the pnpm dependency and the corresponding configuration layer — the official example, dsh plugin --profile demo remove dsh-hello-plugin, drops the dependency and the layer together (source). A DeepSeek Harness plugin is uninstalled through this one channel no matter where it came from, so the same rules cover all DSH plugins. --profile is required, the aliases rm and uninstall work, and you should confirm the layer is gone in both package.json and --dump-config.

DSH plugin uninstall overview: two things to delete, not a folder

Uninstalling a DSH plugin means clearing two things: the profile's pnpm dependency and that plugin's entry in dsh.profile.bundles — clearing only one leaves a trap behind. Keep the conclusions:

1. dsh plugin remove clears both at once, which is why it is the recommended path;
2. Deleting the folder under node_modules by hand touches files only; dependencies and bundles stay as they were, so the profile still resolves a package that is no longer there;
3. In-box bundles are outside pnpm's remit — packages such as @deepseek-ai/dsh-base always resolve from the dsh installation, so remove never applies to them (source).

DSH plugin remove syntax: one command clears dependency and layer

dsh plugin --profile <name> remove <package> deletes the dependency and drops the package from the profile's bundle manifest at the same time, which is the essential difference from hand-deleting a directory (source). The standard flow:

1. Get the exact package name from the installed list:

dsh plugin --profile web list

A wrong name makes pnpm raise an error and exit nonzero, so do not type package names from memory; see dsh plugin list: installed plugins and profile scope for how to read that output.

2. Run the removal:

dsh plugin --profile web remove <package>

3. Confirm the output shows both the dependency removal and the layer being dropped, rather than a bare "done".

4. Remove in bulk or by group when needed — the flags are still pnpm's:

# Remove several packages at once
dsh plugin --profile web remove <packageA> <packageB>

# Only remove it from dependencies
dsh plugin --profile web remove <package> -P

pnpm remove takes the package out of node_modules and the project's package.json, and -D, -O and -P restrict it to the matching dependency group (source).

DSH plugin remove: which profile, and the rm/uninstall aliases

--profile is required with no short form and decides which manifest gets edited, while remove is just one of pnpm's verbs — rm, uninstall and un are equivalent (source). Three points:

1. Plugins belong to a profile, not to the machine. dsh plugin --profile web remove <package> only touches $DSH_HOME/profiles/web; the same plugin in another profile is unaffected. dsh web boots the profile named web, so aim at it before removing.

2. Four equivalent spellings (everything after --profile goes to pnpm):

dsh plugin --profile web remove <package>
dsh plugin --profile web rm <package>
dsh plugin --profile web uninstall <package>
dsh plugin --profile web un <package>

3. On a machine with several profiles, confirm them first and then decide which one to clean:

ls ~/.dsh/profiles

DSH plugin remove verification: package.json and --dump-config

The acceptance bar is two clean places: in the profile's package.json the package must disappear from both dependencies and dsh.profile.bundles, and dsh --profile web --dump-config must no longer print a # == <package> layer (source). Four steps in order:

1. Check the manifest:

cat ~/.dsh/profiles/web/package.json

The name in neither dependencies nor dsh.profile.bundles means dsh's bookkeeping is clean too.

2. Check the composed tree, which shows the layers that actually load without booting:

dsh --profile web --dump-config | grep -n "<package>"

No output means the layer is gone; remaining output means the manifest still carries the entry.

3. Check that pnpm dropped it as well:

dsh plugin --profile web list | grep -n "<package>"

4. Check your own overlay layer. If the profile's cordis.patch.yml has a hand-written row referencing that plugin, clear it too — that overlay is yours and is not managed on your behalf by pnpm or by the bundle manifest (source).

DSH plugin uninstall: things to watch out for

In short: --profile picks the manifest, remove clears dependency and layer together, and verification covers two places. Five reminders:

1. Do not hand-delete plugin folders under node_modules. The files vanish but the manifests remain, and the profile still resolves a package that no longer exists.
2. Stop the app before removing. Deleting files while a plugin is loaded can leave a half-written state; quit dsh web first.
3. In-box bundles cannot and should not be removed. @deepseek-ai/dsh-base, @deepseek-ai/dsh-web-app and @deepseek-ai/dsh-headless resolve from the dsh installation, and pnpm only manages out-of-tree packages (source).
4. Prefer the full remove spelling in scripts. Short aliases such as un hurt readability; use the complete verb for anything shared.
5. Plugin data does not leave with the plugin. remove clears the dependency and the load layer, but data a plugin wrote elsewhere is not deleted automatically — see how to clean up DSH plugin leftovers for a full sweep.

Rather not memorize the command? Uninstall from DSH Plugin Hub

All the complexity of uninstalling is "clear both manifests", and the graphical flow does that for you. Once DSH Plugin Hub is installed, open Settings → Installed, find the plugin and click Uninstall at the end of its row. A confirmation dialog listing the plugin and its source repo appears, and only after you confirm is it removed — dependency and load layer cleared in one go, with no empty shell left behind. Compared with matching package names and diffing two manifests in a terminal, one click is harder to get wrong.

Sources: DeepSeek Harness docs - Package and install a plugin, dsh CLI README, pnpm remove (pnpm rm / uninstall) command reference