stablyai/orca · warning · Error

Refusing to remove a command not owned by Orca at ${status.c

Error message

Refusing to remove a command not owned by Orca at ${status.commandPath}.

What it means

Thrown by CliInstaller.remove() when status.state is 'stale'. A stale command is one that exists at the path but is neither a clean Orca-managed command nor a clear foreign conflict — it may be a partially-installed or leftover Orca command that no longer passes ownership verification.

Source

Thrown at src/main/cli/cli-installer.ts:232

  async remove(): Promise<CliInstallStatus> {
    const status = await this.getStatus()
    if (!status.supported || !status.commandPath || !status.launcherPath || !status.installMethod) {
      return status
    }
    if (status.state === 'not_installed') {
      await this.removeLegacyLinuxCommandIfManaged(status.launcherPath)
      if (this.platform === 'win32') {
        await this.removeWindowsPathEntry(dirname(status.commandPath))
        return this.getStatus()
      }
      return status
    }
    if (status.state === 'conflict') {
      throw new Error(`Refusing to remove non-Orca command at ${status.commandPath}.`)
    }
    if (status.state === 'stale') {
      throw new Error(`Refusing to remove a command not owned by Orca at ${status.commandPath}.`)
    }

    if (status.installMethod === 'symlink') {
      await this.removeSymlink(status.commandPath)
      await this.removeLegacyLinuxCommandIfManaged(status.launcherPath)
    } else if (this.isWindowsPackagedBundledCommand(status.commandPath, status.launcherPath)) {
      await this.removeWindowsPathEntry(dirname(status.commandPath))
    } else {
      await unlink(status.commandPath)
      await this.removeWindowsPathEntry(dirname(status.commandPath))
    }

    return this.getStatus()
  }

  private resolveInstallSpec(): InstallSpec | null {
    const commandPath = this.resolveCommandPath()
    if (!commandPath) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

Inspect the file at status.commandPath: 'ls -la' and 'cat' it to check for Orca markers.
If it's a broken symlink or leftover Orca wrapper, manually remove it and retry.
Reinstall Orca CLI (install()) to reset the marker, then remove() cleanly.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const status = await installer.getStatus()
if (status.state === 'stale') {
  // Investigate before calling remove()
  showStaleGuidance(status.commandPath)
  return
}

Try / catch

try {
  await installer.remove()
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof Error && error.message.includes('not owned by Orca')) {
    // Attempt reinstall first to reset markers, then remove
  } else { throw error }
}

Prevention

Use install() to reset markers on a stale command before remove().
Avoid partial manual deletions of Orca CLI files.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling remove() when the status probe classifies the command as 'stale'. This happens when the file exists but its marker is missing or corrupted, or it's a broken symlink pointing to a deleted Orca binary.

Common situations: A previous Orca version was uninstalled but left a wrapper script. The Orca binary was moved/deleted but the symlink or wrapper remains. The managed marker was stripped by a system cleanup tool.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fa8e47961e4e1c9a. Report an issue: GitHub.