Purge VM

VerifiedCaution

Completely removes a virtual machine, including its disks and machine configuration. Use when the user wants to permanently delete everything about a VM, with no ability to undo.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevOpsIntermediate
706/2/2026
Claude Code
#vm-purge#disk-deletion#machine-config#irreversible

Recommended for

Our review

Completely removes a virtual machine including all disks and configuration, with irreversible data loss.

Strengths

  • Thorough removal of all VM artifacts
  • Irreversible to prevent accidental recreation
  • Clear confirmation steps prevent mistakes
  • Uses a simple `just` command

Limitations

  • Requires the user to know the VM name
  • Destructive and irreversible
  • Only works with this specific `just`-based setup
When to use it

Use when you need to permanently delete a VM and all its associated data to free up resources or clean up old machines.

When not to use it

Do not use if you might need the VM or its data in the future, or if you only want to temporarily stop the VM.

Security analysis

Caution
Quality score90/100

The skill performs a legitimate administrative task (VM purge) but involves irreversible data loss. The use of Bash to execute the destructive command poses risk, but user confirmation is required, and there is no exfiltration or obfuscation.

Findings
  • The skill instructs running a Bash command that permanently deletes an entire VM and its configuration, including all associated data, with no possibility of recovery.
  • The use of `yes |` auto-confirms a destructive command, bypassing the underlying tool's confirmation prompt, though the skill enforces explicit user confirmation beforehand.

Examples

Purge a specific VM
I want to permanently delete the VM named 'dev-server'. Remove it completely including all disks and config.
Help me purge a VM I don't need
List my VMs and help me purge the ones I no longer need. I want to remove them permanently.

name: purge-vm description: Completely remove a VM including its machine config. Use when user wants to permanently delete everything about a VM. allowed-tools: Read, Bash, AskUserQuestion

Purge VM Skill

Completely remove a VM including its disks AND machine configuration. This cannot be undone.

Instructions

Step 1: Get VM Name

Run just list-machines to show existing machine configs. Ask which VM to purge.

Step 2: Confirm Purge

IMPORTANT: Warn the user clearly:

  • The VM will be stopped and removed
  • All VM disks will be deleted
  • All data in /var and /home will be PERMANENTLY LOST
  • The machine config (machines/{name}/) will ALSO be deleted
  • This CANNOT be undone - unlike destroy, there's no way to recreate the VM

Ask for explicit confirmation.

Step 3: Purge

Run:

yes | just purge {NAME}

The yes | is required to bypass the interactive confirmation prompt.

Step 4: Report Results

Confirm the VM and its config were completely removed.

Related skills