Update and uninstall

The desktop app updates itself. The hk command updates when you run its install script again. Uninstalling either one leaves your agents’ files as they are, but turn back on what you turned off in HarnessKit first.

Update the desktop app

HarnessKit checks for a new version each time it starts. When one is out, the sidebar shows the new version number and an Update button.

1. Click Update. A window lists what’s new in that release.
2. Click Update Now. HarnessKit downloads the update, installs it and restarts.

Later closes the window and hides the sidebar button until the next version comes out. To check yourself, open Settings and click Check for Updates. It says “You’re up to date”, or the button changes to Update to and the new version number, which opens the same window.

Update the hk command

1. Stop hk serve if it is running: press Ctrl+C in its terminal. On Linux and Windows, the script can’t replace an hk that is running.

2. Run the install script again. It downloads the latest hk over the old one.

   macOS / Linux

   Terminal

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RealZST/HarnessKit/main/install.sh | sh

   Windows

   PowerShell

   irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RealZST/HarnessKit/main/install.ps1 | iex

3. Check the version, then start hk serve again:

   Terminal

   hk --version

In web mode, the sidebar shows How to Update when a new version is out. It opens what’s new in that release, with a View Update Instructions link.

On a server, run these steps on the server. A Windows server’s SSH session starts in cmd.exe, so run the script through PowerShell, as in Start on a remote server. If you installed hk by hand, download the new file and put it where the old one is, as in Manual download.

The desktop app and hk share one database, ~/.harnesskit/metadata.db. A new version can upgrade it, and an older hk then warns that the database is newer than it supports. When you update one of them, update the other as well.

Uninstall

Turn things back on first

Uninstalling HarnessKit doesn’t turn anything back on. What you turned off in it stays off, in one of three ways:

• Only in HarnessKit’s database. On an agent without its own off switch, HarnessKit turns an MCP server or hook off by taking it out of the agent’s config file. It then exists only in HarnessKit’s database, and deleting ~/.harnesskit loses it.
• Renamed. A skill you turned off is renamed to SKILL.md.disabled in its folder, or <name>.md.disabled for a one-file skill. On an agent without its own switch for plugins, a plugin is turned off the same way: its manifest, or the plugin file itself, gets .disabled added to its name. Remove .disabled to turn it back on, with or without HarnessKit.
• The agent’s own switch. Where the agent has one, HarnessKit uses it, such as the skills.disabled list in Hermes’s ~/.hermes/config.yaml. The setting stays in the agent’s own config, and the agent keeps reading it. Supported agents lists these switches for skills, MCP servers and hooks.

To turn things back on, open Extensions. If you have added projects, choose All scopes in the scope picker, so the list covers them too. Tick what you want to keep and click Enable. The list leaves out agents you turned off in Settings → Agent Paths, so turn those agents back on first.

Everything HarnessKit installed into your agents stays where it is and keeps working. If I stop using HarnessKit, will my agents still work? in the FAQ says more.

Remove the desktop app

• macOS. Quit HarnessKit, then drag it from the Applications folder to the Trash.
• Windows. Open Settings → Apps, find HarnessKit in the list of installed apps, and choose Uninstall.

Remove the hk command

macOS / Linux

Terminal

rm ~/.local/bin/hk

If the install script added ~/.local/bin to your PATH, it wrote these two lines at the end of ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile, depending on your shell:

# Added by HarnessKit CLI installer
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Delete them, unless other programs you use are in ~/.local/bin too.

Windows

PowerShell

Remove-Item "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin\hk.exe"

The install script added %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin to your user Path. Unless other programs you use are in that folder, take it out:

PowerShell

$bin = "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin"
$paths = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User") -split ";" | Where-Object { $_ -ne $bin }
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", ($paths -join ";"), "User")

Remove HarnessKit’s data

This step is optional. HarnessKit keeps its own data in ~/.harnesskit (%USERPROFILE%\.harnesskit on Windows). Delete the folder to remove:

• metadata.db, what HarnessKit knows about your extensions, including the saved copies of what it turned off.
• metadata.db.backup-v<N>, copies of the database from before an update changed its format. They hold the same data, so they can contain API keys from saved MCP servers.
• kits/, the Kits you saved.
• web-token, the web UI’s access token.

Deleting the folder doesn’t touch your agents’ files. Your interface settings, such as language, theme and Detected only, are kept by the desktop app or your browser, not in this folder, so deleting it doesn’t reset them. Where does HarnessKit keep its own data? in the FAQ has more.

Related

Install the CLI and web UI Install hk, by script or by hand, and start the web UI.

Managing files in place, and what goes online What HarnessKit changes on disk, what it stores, and when it goes online.

FAQ Common questions about HarnessKit, its data, and where it runs.