Updates and removal

Automatic updates

Automatic updates are on by default. At most once an hour, a new Claude Code session checks npm in the background. If a newer release is available, Eklavya updates its runtime, plugin files, chat skills and registration, keeping your settings. Your current session continues; the next session loads the new version and announces it once.

The global eklavya command delegates to the newer runtime when present, so you do not need to reinstall the global package for each release. Automatic updates write under your home directory and do not require sudo.

Update now or turn updates off

eklavya update

To stop automatic checks and runtime catch-up:

eklavya config set auto_update false

This setting is global because the machine has one runtime. Manual eklavya update still works. A completely missing runtime is still bootstrapped when the plugin starts; a runtime selected through EKLAVYA_RUNTIME is never automatically changed.

If Claude Code updates the plugin first, the next session catches the runtime up in the background, unless automatic updates are off. Eklavya does not downgrade a runtime that is already newer.

An update that installs a new runtime stops the background dashboard first and starts it again on the new version. Windows cannot replace the database driver while a running dashboard has it loaded.

Diagnose an update

eklavya doctor

Read the updates and versions rows. ~/.eklavya/update.log contains the last background run’s output. Failed updates produce a session notice until they succeed; network failures stay quiet for a week before a notice appears. Run eklavya update to retry and see the error directly.

Only one runtime installation runs at a time. If you see another Eklavya install is running (pid …), wait for that process to finish before retrying. See Troubleshooting for other repairs.

Installer safety and backups

You can repeat eklavya install to repair the install. Existing settings and learning history are preserved. Use eklavya install --settings only when you want to revisit the settings walk.

Before changing a shared JSON file, Eklavya saves one .eklavya-bak copy beside it. This applies to Claude Code’s settings.json, plugins/known_marketplaces.json, plugins/installed_plugins.json, and Eklavya’s configuration files. The backup holds the contents before the last command that changed the file.

For example, on macOS or Linux, restore Claude Code settings with:

mv ~/.claude/settings.json.eklavya-bak ~/.claude/settings.json

If a required JSON file is invalid, the installer names it and stops before changing it. Fix the named file and retry. Uninstall and configuration writes also refuse to overwrite invalid JSON.

Uninstalling

Remove the Claude Code plugin and both user chat skills while keeping your learning history:

npx eklavya uninstall

Uninstalling stops the background dashboard. Restart Claude Code to unload the plugin. Reinstalling later reuses the saved database. The global npm command, if you installed it, can be removed separately with npm uninstall -g eklavya.

Delete saved data only if you intend to

npx eklavya uninstall --purge also deletes ~/.eklavya, including learning history, memory, settings and artifacts. Back up anything you want to keep first; see Your data.

Some integrations need separate removal:

• Project-scoped plugins: uninstall lists those that remain. Remove each through /plugin in its project. Shared plugin files and runtime are kept while they are still needed. --purge removes the runtime anyway (the plugin files stay), so those projects need eklavya install again.
• Git hooks: uninstall reports a hook in the current repository and prints its removal command. Follow it, and repeat for any other repository where you enabled the gate. See The commit gate.
• Cowork: remove its copy through Customize → Plugins → Eklavya → Uninstall in Claude Desktop.