Managing what's installed

1. Order matters when replacing a profile

secure the source → tidy it → uninstall → install

Uninstall first and the source you were about to edit goes with it. Worse: if uninstall succeeds and install then hits the evaluation gate, the user is left with no profile at all. Confirm the incoming version is installable with forgecat view before removing the outgoing one.

2. What's here

forgecat list          # one line per profile
forgecat list -v       # file-level detail
forgecat status        # per-file clean / modified
forgecat status --json # for scripts

All of these read forgecat.lock.yml in the current directory. Run them anywhere else and list reports "No profiles installed" — truthfully, about a forge that isn't this one.

status is the real inventory. The number install printed on the way in counts platform files only — co-installed assets show up here and not there.

3. Drift

status marks each tracked file clean or modified. Modified means the user edited an installed file, and it changes what the other commands do:

• uninstall leaves modified files behind; uninstall --force deletes them too
• update --force overwrites them — there is no merge, and no revert verb
• an update that drops a resource keeps the user's edited copy, with a warning

4. Update

forgecat update --dry-run
forgecat update [target]

Same gates as install (--allow-unevaluated, --allow-high-risk), and the same rule about consent: -y doesn't open a gate, it removes the chance to ask about one. See forgecat-install §4.

5. Remove

uninstall takes back only the profile's own marker section of AGENTS.md — handwritten text around it survives. But a re-install appends its marker at the end of the file, not where it used to be. If a handwritten note refers to "the section above", fix it in the same pass.

6. Two profiles in one project

The lockfile is keyed per profile, so coexistence is by design. The one real collision is skill directory names — two profiles both shipping .claude/skills/review/ will mark each other modified. Rename before installing.

7. MCP environment

forgecat setup                 # fill in what's missing
forgecat setup --reconfigure   # re-prompt everything

Verify

forgecat status

🐾 all clean, or a named list of what drifted.