he clean

Clean a knowledge abstract — remove its search index, or the entire KA with --all.

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Synopsis

he clean KA_PATH [OPTIONS]

Arguments

Argument	Description
KA_PATH	Path to the knowledge abstract directory

Options

Option	Alias	Default	Description
--all	-a	off	Remove the entire KA directory (data, metadata, and index)
--yes	-y	off	Skip the confirmation prompt

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Description

he clean deletes parts of a knowledge abstract:

• Default — removes only the vector index (the index/ subdirectory). The extracted data (data.json) and metadata are kept; rebuild later with he build-index.
• --all — removes the entire KA directory.

Deletion is permanent. The command asks for confirmation first; pass --yes to skip the prompt (e.g. in scripts).

For safety, he clean only operates on a real knowledge abstract — a directory containing data.json. It refuses to delete an arbitrary directory, so a mistyped path cannot wipe unrelated files.

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Examples

Clean the index (keep data)

he clean ./tesla_kb/
# → deletes ./tesla_kb/index/ after confirmation

Remove the whole knowledge abstract

he clean ./tesla_kb/ --all

Non-interactive (scripts / CI)

he clean ./tesla_kb/ --all --yes

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What gets deleted

Mode	Deleted	Kept
default	index/	data.json, metadata.json
--all	the entire KA_PATH directory	—

An Obsidian vault produced by he export obsidian is a separate folder and is not touched by he clean. Remove it with your shell (rm -rf ./vault/).

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See Also

• he build-index — Rebuild the search index after cleaning it
• he info — Inspect a knowledge abstract before cleaning
• he parse — Re-create a knowledge abstract