How to uninstall Pieces on Mac

Back up both Pieces and Pieces OS before removing either app. The storage guide identifies ~/Library/com.pieces.os for snippets, conversations, engine data and Long-Term Memory, and ~/Library/com.pieces.pfd for desktop settings and logs. A Personal Cloud snapshot does not replace a full manual database copy when you want raw Long-Term Memory data.

Stop both apps and copy data

Finish work and stop integrations using Pieces OS, then quit the desktop app and use Quit from the Pieces menu-bar icon. Copy both entire existing folders outside all sync and removal roots and verify the copies. Also copy wanted existing ~/Library/Application Support/com.pieces.x and ~/Library/Application Support/com.pieces.os before clearing those cask-listed app-state folders. Keep data if another Pieces integration still needs it.

The Mac uninstall guide removes both apps through Finder. For a complete local product removal, move the Pieces desktop app and Pieces OS app from Applications to the Trash after backup and service cleanup. The tested/cask OS bundle is Pieces OS.app; current documentation calls it PiecesOS. Removing just the desktop app does not establish that the OS engine or integrations are gone.

For a directly installed OS service that remains loaded, inspect its actual launch entry before unloading the known product label:

launchctl bootout "gui/$(id -u)/com.pieces.os.launch"

Only after it is stopped, review the owned ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pieces.os.launch.plist in Finder. A missing service may mean it is already unloaded; other errors are not success. Keep other LaunchAgents and integration settings. For Homebrew installations use its ordinary service handling below instead.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The desktop cask depends on Pieces OS. Desktop ordinary uninstall quits com.pieces.x; OS ordinary uninstall quits com.pieces.os and unloads com.pieces.os.launch, independently of zap. To remove both managed apps after backup:

brew uninstall --cask pieces pieces-os

Desktop zap names ~/Library/Application Support/com.pieces.x, ~/Library/com.pieces.pfd, ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.pieces.x, ~/Library/Preferences/com.pieces.x.plist and ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.pieces.x.savedState. OS zap names ~/Library/Application Support/com.pieces.os, ~/Library/com.pieces.os, ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pieces.os.launch.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.pieces.os.plist. These include saved content, not only cache.

Direct brew uninstall --cask --zap pieces pieces-os ignores Mole's checkboxes. Mole uses zap only when its whole scope passes selection, ownership and safety checks; selected remnants otherwise use its own Trash flow. The ordinary OS unload step does not depend on data selection. Keep engine data if another integration still uses it.

Check the result

pgrep -ifl pieces
ls -ld "$HOME/Library/com.pieces.os" "$HOME/Library/com.pieces.pfd" "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pieces.os.launch.plist"
launchctl list | grep -F com.pieces.os.launch

No process match means no arguments matched this pattern; inspect surviving paths before acting. Printed folders or a plist remain, expected if deliberately kept. With a successful launchd read and no errors, no matching row means that list has no matching job, not that every integration was removed. Missing-path errors concern only those entries; other read errors are inconclusive and do not verify database recovery.

What Mole lists

Exact app-ID support and preferences follow their default selection rules, so back up and uncheck wanted state. The cask-listed ~/Library/com.pieces.os and ~/Library/com.pieces.pfd data folders require review, starting unchecked with Remove data and settings with apps off; enabling it can preselect eligible unshared rows. Other installed Pieces integrations and shared claims can affect eligibility. Removing one app does not automatically remove both product components.

What this test covered

On September 22, 2026, the official-download Pieces 6.1.0 desktop app and Pieces OS 12.6.2 were copied into Applications, launched and separately removed with their selected ~/Library/com.pieces.pfd and ~/Library/com.pieces.os data. The OS launch plist and first-run launch item were removed; the label remained only disabled, without its plist. Populated-database restoration, third-party integration cleanup and Homebrew were not tested.