How to uninstall Claude Code on a Mac, when it is installed twice
Remove Claude Code installed natively or with Homebrew, the old versions it keeps, and the history folder. On our Mac there were two installs and 1.2 GB of history.
How do I find how Claude Code was installed?
Run which -a claude. Ours listed two:
| Install | Where | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Native installer | ~/.local/bin/claude, pointing into ~/.local/share/claude/versions | 713 MB, three versions kept |
| Homebrew cask | /opt/homebrew/bin/claude | 174 MB, an older version |
The native one came first in the PATH, so it was the one that ran; the Homebrew copy was an older version sitting unused.
How do I uninstall Claude Code?
- Native install: remove
~/.local/bin/claudeand~/.local/share/claude. - Homebrew:
brew uninstall --cask claude-code. - npm:
npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code.
What is in the ~/.claude folder?
Settings, plugins, skills, and saved session history. Ours was 1.2 GB, of which 947 MB was project history in ~/.claude/projects. Move the folder to the Trash only if you no longer want that history or your settings.
Other local AI tools with large folders: uninstall Ollama and uninstall the Claude desktop app.
Common questions
How do I uninstall Claude Code on Mac?
Remove ~/.local/bin/claude and ~/.local/share/claude for the native install, brew uninstall --cask claude-code for Homebrew, or npm uninstall -g for npm.
Where does Claude Code store its data on Mac?
In ~/.claude in your home folder: settings, plugins and session history.