Optional guide

Uninstall Renku

Remove Renku from macOS or Windows while keeping your films and, if you choose, your settings.

All chaptersInstallation

Before you begin

These steps apply to the terminal installer from the Download page. If you chose custom installation folders, use those locations instead.

What you’ll do

Remove the runtime, agent plugins, and any separately installed skills, with separate choices for keeping your Project Library and saved settings.

Stop Studio and keep your films

Your films are separate from the application. Uninstalling Renku does not require deleting them.

  1. In Claude, uninstall the Renku plugin and remove its marketplace registration before deleting the application folders below. The marketplace uses a folder managed by Renku.
  2. In the terminal running Studio, press Ctrl+C. Close the Studio browser tab and quit your agent app.
  3. Keep your Project Library. The default location is Movies/Renku in your Mac home folder or Videos\Renku in your Windows user folder. Keep any custom project folders too.
  4. If you want to delete films as well, back them up first and treat that as a separate decision. The steps below preserve them.

Uninstall on macOS

Use Finder’s Go to Folder command (Shift+Command+G) to open the hidden folders below. Move only the named Renku files and folders to Trash.

  1. Open ~/.local/share and move the renku folder to Trash. This removes installed versions and the private Node/npm runtime.
  2. Open ~/.local/bin and move the renku launcher to Trash. Leave other files in this folder alone.
  3. Settings and saved credentials are in ~/.config/renku. Keep this folder for a future reinstall, or move it to Trash if you want those settings removed too.
  4. Optional: the installer may have added a block between “# >>> Renku PATH >>>” and “# <<< Renku PATH <<<” in ~/.zprofile, ~/.bash_profile, or ~/.profile. Remove that block only if no other tools need ~/.local/bin on your PATH. Leaving it is harmless.
  5. Continue with the agent-skills section below. Leave any separately installed Node, Git, or Apple Command Line Tools in place; other applications may use them.

Uninstall on Windows

Open File Explorer and enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Renku in the address bar. Renku’s settings share this parent folder with the application, so keep the Studio folder if you want to retain them.

  1. Delete the versions, bin, and tools folders, plus current.txt. After removing the Claude marketplace registration, also delete plugins/claude/renku. These contain the runtime, launchers, and Renku’s private Git installation. Preserve the Studio folder to keep settings and credentials.
  2. If you also want to erase saved settings and credentials, you can delete the entire %LOCALAPPDATA%\Renku folder instead. Your separate Project Library should still be kept.
  3. Open Start and search for “Edit environment variables for your account”. Under User variables, select Path and choose Edit. Remove only the entry for %LOCALAPPDATA%\Renku\bin (it may appear as the expanded C:\Users\…\AppData\Local\Renku\bin path). Do not remove other entries or the whole Path variable.
  4. Close and reopen terminals after changing PATH. Continue with the agent-skills section below. Leave separately installed Node and Git in place.

Remove Renku’s plugins and skills

Setup installs Renku plugins for detected Claude and Codex installations. Skills for other agents are installed separately by you. Removing the runtime does not unregister plugins or remove separate skill copies.

  1. Remove the Renku plugin through Claude Code or Claude Desktop’s plugin controls, and through Codex’s plugin controls wherever it is installed. Remove Claude’s Renku marketplace registration before deleting its managed folder, as described above. Restart the agents afterward.
  2. For skills you installed separately, use the same agent and scope you chose during installation. With your own Node/npm and Git available, run npx skills remove --agent cursor from the folder where you installed project skills. For global skills, run npx skills remove --agent cursor --global. Replace cursor with your agent’s identifier and select only Renku skills. Repeat for each project or agent where you installed them.
  3. Without a separate Node/npm installation, open the skill folders used by your agent. Project skills are inside the folder where you installed them; global skills are under your home folder. Use Finder’s Go to Folder on Mac or File Explorer’s address bar on Windows to open the installation location.
  4. Match Renku skill folder names against the Studio Skills repository linked below. Remove only those individual folders. Skill names such as movie-director do not necessarily start with “renku”; do not delete an entire shared skills folder.

See the Renku skill folders →

Before you finish

The runtime, Renku plugins, and any separate skills you selected are removed. Your film folders remain intact. Settings are retained or removed according to your choice; you can reinstall from the Download page later.