cli-sacrifice.md

summary	Permanently delete a non-running session.
read_when	Looking up sacrifice
title	coven sacrifice
description	Reference for coven sacrifice: the destructive ritual that removes a session record and its events. Refuses live sessions and requires --yes.

Usage

coven sacrifice <session-id> --yes

Sacrifice is the permanent delete command for a non-running session and its event log. It is intentionally explicit so a copied session id is not enough to delete history by accident.

Safety rules

coven sacrifice requires --yes. Without it, the command fails and tells you to rerun with confirmation.

The command also refuses live sessions:

session `<session-id>` is still running; do not sacrifice live work — kill it first with `coven kill <session-id>`

Use coven attach <session-id> or coven daemon status first if you are not sure whether the harness is still running. If the session really should stop, coven kill <session-id> ends its process while keeping the event log.

What gets deleted

Sacrifice deletes the session row from the local store. Session events are removed with it, so replay, search, and archive recovery no longer work for that session.

Use archive instead when you only want to clean up the active list:

coven archive <session-id>

Related

• Session lifecycle
• Sessions
• Attach
• Archive