Install, uninstall and rollback

The rules ripeat keeps

1. Never remove what it did not install. A tool whose check already succeeds is recorded as pre-existing. Uninstall and rollback only forget it, and install never changes it: if you asked for a version that differs from the one already there, ripeat says so and leaves it (Risk and assess).
2. Journal before acting. Each step is written to state.json as pending before it runs, then done or failed. That is what lets a failed or crashed run be undone.
3. Honest about what cannot be undone. Anything ripeat could not undo is listed.
4. No OS protections are ever disabled.

ripeat install [tool[@version] ...]

0. A name with no recipe (at a keyboard, not with --dry-run): ripeat says so and asks Look for "opera" and draft a recipe? [y/N]. On yes it does what ripeat add does (Install by name): looks the name up, lets you pick when it is found in more than one place, shows the drafted recipe, and saves it when you agree. Then the install carries on from step 1 with the new recipe, which is kept for next time. Answer no, or find nothing, and nothing is installed. --yes never answers this question, because a recipe made from something found on the internet is for you to read first. With no terminal (a script, an AI assistant) or with --dry-run, ripeat does not offer: it fails with no recipe named ... and the ripeat add hint, as before. With several such names it asks once for all of them, then shows every draft before one question to save them (Install by name).
1. Resolves the list and its dependencies (Recipes), applies ripeat.lock if present (The lockfile), and prints the plan: tool, method, user or admin, and why it is there.
2. Rates the plan's risk (Risk and assess); a HIGH-risk plan is not run unless you confirm or pass --accept-risk.
3. Asks before it changes anything: Install 3 tools as shown above? [y/N]. Answer y to go ahead. --yes (or -y) answers for you. With no terminal to ask in (a script, an AI assistant) and no --yes, ripeat refuses and changes nothing. A plan with nothing to install asks nothing. Then it asks for admin rights once if any step needs them (Admin rights).
4. Runs the steps in dependency order. Tools already managed are skipped; tools already on the machine are recorded and left alone. A tool whose recipe is manual (Recipes) and that is not there is left for you: ripeat does not install it, carries on with the rest, and ends with a "Left for you to install by hand" list.
5. If a step makes the machine need a restart, the run pauses; see Restarts and resume.
6. If a step fails, ripeat says why it probably failed (When something fails) and the whole run is undone, newest step first, so the machine returns to how it was. --no-rollback turns this off; you can then run ripeat rollback yourself.

ripeat plan (or --dry-run) prints the plan and the commands that would run, and writes nothing.

ripeat uninstall tool ...

• Shows what it will remove (and which tools it will only forget), then asks Go ahead? [y/N]; --yes answers for you, and with no terminal it refuses without it.
• Refuses to remove a tool that another managed tool still requires, unless --force.
• Removes in an order where dependents go before what they need.
• A pre-existing tool is only forgotten, not removed.
• Afterwards it names dependencies that were installed only for the removed tool and are no longer needed. It does not remove them for you.
• remove is an alias.

ripeat rollback

Undoes the most recent run that is not already undone; run it again for older runs. It lists what it will undo and asks Undo this run as shown above? [y/N]; --yes answers for you, and with no terminal and no --yes it refuses. What "undo" means per kind of step:

Step	Undone by
install	uninstall (never for pre-existing tools)
uninstall	reinstall (at the recorded version, or the latest if it was unpinned). A tool that is already back is not reinstalled: only the record is restored, and winget's "already installed, nothing to upgrade" answer counts as done
upgrade	not undone: the old version is not kept; rollback says so and leaves it
policy (users, groups)	removing what that run created (Users and groups)

Each rollback undoes one run. If older runs can still be undone, it says so (An older run can still be undone (...)), and running it again undoes the next one: undoing an uninstall run reinstalls the tool, so check what it lists before you answer. ripeat history lists the runs.

Rollback is best effort: one failure does not stop the rest, everything that could not be undone is listed, and the run stays rollbackable so it can be retried. A run that was interrupted or crashed is undone from its journal. --dry-run lists what would be undone.

Reading the state

• ripeat list: each managed tool, its version (detected, else requested), method, and whether it was already there.
• ripeat history: the last 20 runs, with status (in_progress, complete, failed, rolled_back, needs_reboot).

Limits

• Rollback cannot restore data a tool wrote itself (config, volumes, caches).
• Rollback removes what ripeat installed, not packages the system manager pulled in as dependencies (for example apt installs git with npm; apt autoremove cleans those). pacman removal is the exception: it also drops helper packages.
• A reinstall during rollback fetches the recorded version, or the latest if the install was unpinned.
• Only one ripeat command that writes state runs at a time. A second one fails immediately, naming state.json.lock; the lock is released automatically if ripeat crashes. Dry runs and read-only commands (list, history, recipes, outdated, lock) do not take it.