nkapp destroy

Stop and remove services and infrastructure. Also aliased as nkapp down.

nkapp destroy [services...] [options]
nkapp down [services...]   # alias

Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
services	string[]	Optional list of service names. If omitted, destroys everything.

Options

Flag	Type	Default	Description
-e, --env <env>	string	local	Target environment
-v, --volumes	boolean	false	Remove associated persistent volumes
--ssh <host>	string	—	Target an explicit host (e.g. root@1.2.3.4), overriding the environment's configured deploy target
-p, --port <port>	number	22	SSH port (used with --ssh)
-i, --ssh-key <path>	string	—	SSH private key override (used with --ssh)
-y, --yes	boolean	false	Skip confirmation prompt

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Behavior

Selective Destruction

When service names are provided, only those containers are stopped and removed. Infrastructure and other services remain untouched.

nkapp destroy api worker

Untracked resources matching the name are auto-discovered, so a container that drifted out of the local state file is still removed.

Full Destruction

When no service names are provided, all services and project-level infrastructure are destroyed:

• All service containers are removed
• The project network is removed
• The gateway and bridge containers are removed
• Infrastructure resources (cloud instances) are destroyed

Cross-project safety

Teardown is scoped by the nk-project + nk-env labels. A container belonging to another project or another environment is never removed, even if its name looks similar.

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Host override (--ssh)

Point the teardown at an explicit host instead of the environment's configured target (and instead of the local → local-Docker default). This is how you clean up stranded or cross-host resources, e.g. after a nkapp migrate left the old host behind:

nkapp destroy --ssh root@1.2.3.4 -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa -e stage -y

The same override exists on volumes prune, containers prune and images prune.

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Remote Support

For remote environments (without --ssh), Nanokit establishes an SSH tunnel before issuing destroy commands. The tunnel is cleaned up automatically after completion.

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Examples

# Destroy everything in local
nkapp destroy -y

# Destroy specific services
nkapp destroy api -e stage

# Full teardown of staging
nkapp down -e stage -y

# Teardown including data volumes (DANGEROUS)
nkapp destroy -e stage -v -y

DANGER

Full destruction removes all containers and associated state. Persistent volumes are not removed by default — use -v / --volumes to explicitly remove them (e.g. database data). Use nkapp clean for a total project wipe, or nkapp teardown for a state-free, tag-based sweep in CI.