Azure Stack Destroy

Tear down a Git-Ape deployment by ID. Reads state.json under .azure/deployments/<id>/ to delete the Azure Deployment Stack and purge soft-deleted Key Vault / Cognitive Services. Refuses to run without state.json. Use for any local CLI or VS Code Git-Ape teardown so the result matches the CI destroy workflow.

Details

Property	Value
Skill Directory	.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/
Phase	General
User Invocable	✅ Yes
Usage	/azure-stack-destroy Deployment ID — add --yes to skip the typed confirmation

Documentation

Azure Stack Destroy

Destroy a Git-Ape deployment by deleting its subscription-scoped Azure Deployment Stack in a single idempotent call (az stack sub delete --action-on-unmanage deleteAll --bypass-stack-out-of-sync-error true). The stack owns every resource the matching deploy created — across resource groups and subscription scope — so one delete cleans up everything.

After the stack is gone, this skill performs a soft-delete purge sweep for resource types that linger after deletion (Key Vault, Cognitive Services, App Configuration, API Management, ML workspaces, Recovery Services vaults). Resources flagged purgeProtected: true in state.json are intentionally retained.

This skill mirrors .github/workflows/git-ape-destroy.yml so local destroys and CI destroys are interchangeable.

USE FOR

Trigger this skill when the user wants to tear down a Git-Ape deployment they previously created:

• "destroy this deployment", "tear down deploy-XXX", "clean up the stack", "delete the Git-Ape deployment", "free up the resource group so I can re-deploy with the same name"
• Post-deploy teardown after a demo, smoke test, or short-lived environment
• Cleaning up a failed or stale Git-Ape deployment whose state.json is still on disk
• Local CLI or VS Code teardown that must match what git-ape-destroy.yml does in CI

Prefer this over raw az group delete

For any deployment Git-Ape created, this skill is the correct tool — do not suggest az group delete on its own. Reasons:

1. Multi-RG / subscription-scope coverage. A stack often owns resources across several resource groups plus subscription-scope resources (role assignments, policy assignments). One az group delete cleans only one RG.
2. Soft-delete purge. Key Vault and Cognitive Services soft-delete on RG deletion and silently hold the name (and quota) for 7–90 days. This skill purges them so the user can re-deploy with the same name immediately.
3. State consistency. Updates state.json and metadata.json to terminal status (destroyed, retained-soft-deleted, etc.) so the next operation sees an accurate view.

DO NOT USE FOR

Refuse to invoke this skill in any of these cases:

• No state.json on disk. Hard prerequisite — see below. Without it, recommend re-running deploy or aborting.
• Resource groups not created by Git-Ape (e.g. ones the user made by hand with az group create). Suggest az group delete --name <rg> --yes directly instead.
• Deploying or updating a stack. Use azure-stack-deploy for those.
• Deleting an individual resource inside a stack. This skill always destroys the whole stack — there is no "surgical" mode.
• Non-Azure clouds or non-Git-Ape Azure deployments (ARM/Bicep/Terraform from other tools).

When to Use

• User says: "destroy this deployment", "tear down deploy-XXX", "clean up the stack"
• Pair with the matching azure-stack-deploy — same stack, same state.json key (stackId)
• Any time you would otherwise run az group delete against a Git-Ape deployment (don't — you'll miss soft-delete cleanup and multi-RG resources)

Prerequisites

Tool	Why
az (Azure CLI ≥ 2.59)	az stack sub delete --bypass-stack-out-of-sync-error requires a recent CLI
jq	Read state.json
bash ≥ 4 OR PowerShell 7+	Either runner works
Active az login	Must be the same subscription where the stack lives
Existing state.json under .azure/deployments/<id>/	Source of truth for stackId, managedResources, softDeletable, purgeProtected

Hard prerequisite: state.json under .azure/deployments/<id>/. Without it this skill aborts — it has no idea which stack, resource groups, or soft-deletables to clean up. Do NOT hand-write state.json; re-run the matching azure-stack-deploy for that deployment ID first, or use az group delete directly on a known resource group (a non-Git-Ape teardown, outside this skill's scope).

Procedure

Fast mode vs sync mode

The scripts default to fast mode (interactive default). The CI workflow keeps sync mode (deterministic).

	How	Wait time (small VNet stack)	When to use
Fast (default)	Background the az stack sub delete call, then poll managed RGs with az group exists	~2 min	Local CLI / VS Code use; user wants quick feedback
Sync (--wait / -Wait)	az stack sub delete ... --yes (blocks until stack metadata is fully cleaned)	~5 min	CI pipelines (default in git-ape-destroy.yml); when you need every Azure-side cleanup completed before the script exits

The Azure CLI does not expose --no-wait on az stack sub delete, so the fast path runs the same command as a detached background process. In fast mode the stack-metadata cleanup continues asynchronously in Azure after the script returns. The next destroy of the same deploymentId is idempotent: if the stack is still finalizing, az stack sub show will return it and the script will simply pick up where Azure left off.

1. Identify deployment

DEPLOYMENT_ID="deploy-20260506-001"
DEPLOYMENT_PATH=".azure/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID"
[[ -f "$DEPLOYMENT_PATH/state.json" ]] || { echo "state.json missing — cannot destroy"; exit 1; }

2. Run the script

.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/scripts/destroy-stack.sh \
  --deployment-id "$DEPLOYMENT_ID"

Skip the confirmation prompt (use only in automation):

.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/scripts/destroy-stack.sh \
  --deployment-id "$DEPLOYMENT_ID" \
  --yes

Force CI-equivalent sync wait (default for the CI workflow; opt-in for the script):

.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/scripts/destroy-stack.sh \
  --deployment-id "$DEPLOYMENT_ID" \
  --yes --wait

PowerShell equivalents:

.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/scripts/destroy-stack.ps1 -DeploymentId "$DEPLOYMENT_ID"
.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/scripts/destroy-stack.ps1 -DeploymentId "$DEPLOYMENT_ID" -Yes
.github/skills/azure-stack-destroy/scripts/destroy-stack.ps1 -DeploymentId "$DEPLOYMENT_ID" -Yes -Wait

3. What the script does

1. Reads state.json and extracts stackId, deployMethod, resourceGroup, managedResources[], softDeletable[]
2. Prints a destroy plan — stack ID, resource group, count of soft-deletables (with purge-protection flagged)
3. Prompts for typed destroy confirmation (unless --yes)
4. Stack delete path (stackId present):
   • az stack sub delete --action-on-unmanage deleteAll --bypass-stack-out-of-sync-error true --yes
   • The bypass flag is safe in destroy because it's a one-shot operation — we don't need the stale-manifest safety check that protects iterative updates
5. Fallback path (no stackId, only resourceGroup): az group delete --name <rg> --yes
6. Purge sweep for each softDeletable resource not marked purgeProtected:
   • Key Vaults: az keyvault list-deleted + az keyvault purge
   • Cognitive Services: az cognitiveservices account purge
   • Other types (App Configuration, API Management, ML workspaces, Recovery Services vaults): not auto-purged — they expire from soft-delete naturally and are tracked in purgeResults[] with status: skipped-natural-expiry
7. Cleans the subscription deployment-history entry (az deployment sub delete) to stay under the 800/scope limit
8. Updates state.json and metadata.json with terminal status:

Status	Meaning
destroyed	Stack/RG gone and all soft-deletables purged or absent
retained-soft-deleted	Stack gone but at least one soft-deletable retained (purge-protected or purge failed)
partially-destroyed	Stack delete partially failed
destroy-failed	Stack/RG delete failed entirely
already-destroyed	Stack and RG were already gone before this call

4. Inspect the result

=== Destroy Summary ===
Status:   destroyed
Duration: 87s
=======================

Or, when something is intentionally retained:

=== Destroy Summary ===
Status:   retained-soft-deleted
Duration: 92s
Retained: 1 soft-deleted resource(s) (purge-protected)
=======================

state.json gains destroyedAt, destroyedBy, destroyDuration, and a purgeResults[] array describing each soft-deletable's outcome.

Arguments

Flag (bash)	Param (pwsh)	Required	Description
--deployment-id <id>	-DeploymentId <id>	yes	Folder name under .azure/deployments/
--yes	-Yes	no	Skip the typed destroy confirmation prompt (CI-only)
--wait	-Wait	no	Sync mode: block until Azure has cleaned up stack metadata. Matches the CI workflow. Slower (~3-4×) but fully deterministic.
--poll-timeout <sec>	-PollTimeout <sec>	no	Fast-mode timeout per managed RG poll (default 600s)

Failure modes

Symptom	Likely cause	Recovery
state.json missing	Deployment never reached the state-write phase, or was hand-edited	Re-deploy (idempotent on stack name) then destroy, OR delete the .azure/deployments/<id>/ folder if Azure has nothing
Stack out of sync despite --bypass-stack-out-of-sync-error	Old CLI version	Upgrade az to ≥ 2.59
Key Vault purge fails	Vault is purge-protected (purgeProtected: true)	Expected — wait 7-90 days for soft-delete window to expire, or purge manually after disabling protection
Cannot delete resource group …/InUseSubnetCannotBeDeleted	A resource outside the stack references one inside (e.g. external subnet peered to a deleted VNet)	Inspect externalReferences[] in state.json; remove the reference and rerun

Related

• azure-stack-deploy — the matching deploy skill (writes the state.json this skill consumes)
• azure-drift-detector — check for unmanaged drift BEFORE destroy
• azure-resource-visualizer — visualize what's in the stack before tearing it down