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Destroy a cluster

Updated 1 min read

When you're done with a cluster, tear it down with nic destroy. These steps are the same across all providers; see your provider's page for provider-specific cleanup notes.

Destroy

Section titled “Destroy”

Run a dry-run first to see what will be removed, then destroy:

Terminal window
# Preview what will be destroyed; no resources are removed.
nic destroy -f <config-file> --dry-run


# Tear down everything nic created (prompts for confirmation first).
nic destroy -f <config-file>

nic destroy prompts for confirmation before removing anything. Pass --auto-approve to skip the prompt in automation.

If a resource fails to delete and nic destroy exits with an error, retry with --force to continue past errors instead of aborting:

Terminal window
nic destroy -f <config-file> --force

Order of teardown

Section titled “Order of teardown”

nic destroy tears things down in this order:

  1. Validates your config and selects the provider.
  2. Prompts for confirmation (skipped with --auto-approve or --dry-run).
  3. Cleans up DNS records, if a DNS provider is configured.
  4. Destroys the cluster infrastructure.

A --dry-run previews the changes without removing anything, including DNS records.

Check for orphan resources

Section titled “Check for orphan resources”

Always confirm in your cloud provider's console that no orphan resources remain after destroy. Resources that bill hourly (load balancers, NAT gateways, volumes) are worth checking first. See your provider's page for provider-specific cleanup notes.