Unrender Repo

---
name: unrender-repo
description: >-
  Retire a repo from the standards system: remove the rule files a render put
  there, drop the local exclusion block, and forget the repo so doctor stops
  reporting it. Preview first, act only on --yes. Use when the user says
  unrender, un-onboard, retire this repo, remove the rendered rules, stop
  tracking this repo, take the standards out of here, or is abandoning a repo
  that doctor keeps naming. Not for deleting a repo — this leaves the repo
  intact and removes only what the engine put in it.
---

# Unrender a repo

The inverse of `onboard-repo`. Removes what `render.py` wrote into a target
repo and takes that repo out of the registry, in one act.

**Preview by default.** This deletes files in a repo the engine does not own,
so the first run always reports and changes nothing.

## The command

```bash
~/second-brain-workflow/scripts/render.py --unrender "<TARGET>"        # preview
~/second-brain-workflow/scripts/render.py --unrender --yes "<TARGET>"  # act
```

Or `make unrender REPO=<TARGET>` / `make unrender REPO=<TARGET> YES=1`.

Show the user the preview output before running with `--yes`, unless they
already asked for it in the same breath ("unrender it", "just do it").

## What it removes

| Removed | Condition |
|---|---|
| `.cursor/rules/*.mdc`, `.claude/rules/*.md` | only files carrying the provenance marker |
| `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md` | only if they carry the marker |
| `.sbw-version` | always — the engine owns it outright |
| the `.git/info/exclude` block | only if the repo was rendered `--local` |
| the registry entry | if the registry names the repo |
| `.cursor` / `.claude` themselves | only if taking the rules directory out left them empty |

Anything without the marker is hand-written and is left alone — the same rule
`render.py` follows when writing. A hand-written `CLAUDE.md` survives; so does
a `.cursor/rules/local-only.mdc` a human put there.

**It never searches the repo for the marker.** Only the paths render.py itself
writes are candidates. A repo can legitimately contain the marker string as
content — this engine's own landing page quotes the provenance header as copy —
and a grep-based implementation would offer to delete the product.

## Both halves, or neither

Doing half of this by hand is what leaves a repo doctor complains about forever:

- `rm -rf` the repo, or delete the rendered files by hand → the registry still
  names it, and every check reports a **stale entry** or a repo that **drifted**.
- Remove the registry line by hand → the files are still there, and the scan
  reports the repo as **rendered but not registered**.

Running the command is what closes both. If the user is deleting the repo
directory, unrender it *first* — once the directory is gone there is nothing to
run the command against, and only a hand-edit of the registry is left.

## After

Re-onboarding is just a render: `render.py "<TARGET>"`. Nothing about
unrendering is destructive to the repo's own history — every file it removes is
one the engine generated and can generate again.

**A retired repo reads as never-onboarded, so a wrap-up there will offer to
onboard it.** That is correct for a repo you unrendered to re-render cleanly,
and wrong for one you are walking away from. If the user is retiring it for
good, record the decision in the same breath:

```bash
~/second-brain-workflow/scripts/onboarding-state.py --repo "<TARGET>" \
  --decline --reason 'retired, not coming back'
```

Ask which of the two it is when it is not obvious from what they said; it is
one short question, and the alternative is `update-second-brain` re-offering
something they just deliberately undid.

Report to the user what was removed and that the repo is no longer tracked.
Do not offer to delete the repo directory; that is theirs to do.

## Boundary

- Onboarding a repo, or re-rendering one that drifted: **`onboard-repo`**.
- Removing skills installed on this *machine*: `make uninstall` — a different
  question, and it never touches a target repo.
- A repo the registry names that no longer exists on disk: unrender cannot help
  (there is no directory to act on). Say so, and that the entry is inert.