Fjall Docs — deploy AWS infrastructure into your own account

Destructive command. This permanently deletes AWS resources. Back up data first.

Overview

fjall destroy <app> deletes the AWS resources for one application, in reverse dependency order. The positional argument is application-only. Tier teardown uses noun-verb commands instead: fjall org destroy, fjall platform destroy, fjall account destroy. Passing organisation, platform, account or domain as the positional fails before authentication with a teaching error naming the right spelling. Nothing is validated and nothing is destroyed:

$ fjall destroy organisation
'fjall destroy organisation' is app-only now - tier destroys are noun-verb.
Nothing was validated or destroyed. Cure: run fjall org destroy

Prerequisites

Requirement	How to satisfy it
Signed in to Fjall	`fjall login`
A connected AWS account	`fjall connect`
The application exists locally	Run from the project root, with `fjall/<app>/infrastructure.ts` present

Without the infrastructure file, destroy stops with No infrastructure.ts found and does no AWS work.

Usage

fjall destroy [app] [options]

Destroy an application

fjall destroy api

Fjall deletes the application’s CloudFormation stacks in this order, skipping stacks the application does not declare:

Step	Progress line	Runs when
1	Authenticating with AWS	Always
2	Checking infrastructure state	Always
3	Destroying cdn infrastructure	The application declares a CDN
4	Destroying us-east-1 certificate infrastructure	The application declares those certificates
5	Destroying compute infrastructure	Always
6	Destroying database infrastructure	Always
7	Destroying messaging infrastructure	The application declares messaging
8	Destroying storage infrastructure	The application declares storage
9	Destroying network infrastructure	Always

Compute goes before the database, and the network stack goes last, so nothing is deleted while a dependent stack still references it.

What survives the destroy

Removal policies come from the target account’s environment, not from a flag on the command. Accounts stamped production default to RETAIN, so their data resources outlive the stack delete. Every other stage (staging, development, platform, compliance) defaults to DESTROY. Check which account a target maps to with fjall target list before you destroy anything in a staging or development account.

Tear down tier infrastructure

Tier teardown is noun-verb. Each command registers only the flags its tier honours.

Command	Removes
`fjall org destroy`	Organisation stack: IAM Identity Center, account references
`fjall platform destroy`	Platform stack: IPAM, shared networking
`fjall account destroy`	Account stack: CloudTrail, EventBridge, ECR, backup vaults

Cascade control

fjall org destroy cascades by default, tearing down every member account first, then the platform, then the organisation stack:

Authenticating with AWS
Checking infrastructure state
Destroying account infrastructure      (member accounts)
Destroying platform infrastructure     (platform account)
Destroying organisation infrastructure

Pass --no-cascade to destroy the organisation stack alone:

# Organisation stack only
fjall org destroy --no-cascade

# Organisation, platform and every member account
fjall org destroy

--no-cascade exists on fjall org destroy only. fjall destroy, fjall platform destroy and fjall account destroy reject it as an unknown option, and neither the platform nor the account teardown ever cascades.

Interactive flow

Run fjall destroy with no argument for a guided teardown:

? What would you like to destroy?
> Application      Remove cloud applications
  Organisation     Remove AWS foundation

Application loads the applications registered for your organisation and asks which one:

? Select application to destroy:
> Api
  Web
  Dashboard

Organisation lists only the tiers scaffolded in the current project:

? Select infrastructure to destroy:
> Organisation    Identity Centre, account references
  Platform        IPAM, shared networking
  Account         CloudTrail, EventBridge, ECR, backup vaults

With no tier scaffolded locally, the screen prints No organisation infrastructure found. / Nothing to destroy. and exits. Selecting Organisation then asks about the cascade, defaulting to No:

This will destroy all organisation infrastructure including Platform (IPAM,
networking) and Account stacks (CloudTrail, EventBridge, ECR, backup vaults)
across every member account.

? Destroy Organisation, Platform and all Accounts? (y/N)

The pickers appear only when you run fjall destroy bare. Passing a target (fjall destroy api, fjall org destroy) jumps straight to the confirmation, so on fjall org destroy the cascade is controlled by --no-cascade rather than by the prompt.

Confirmation

The final gate is a typed confirmation, not a yes/no prompt. Type the target name exactly (case-insensitive) to proceed:

WARNING: This will permanently destroy all resources in api. This cannot be
undone!

Type "api" to confirm:

--force or --skip-confirmation replaces the typed gate with a skipped step:

Destroying api
  ✓ Confirming destruction - Skipped (--force)

In a non-interactive shell, one of those two flags is mandatory. Without either, destroy exits with a validation error:

Destruction requires --force or --skip-confirmation flag in non-interactive mode
This is a safety measure to prevent accidental deletion

Arguments

Argument	Description	Example
`app`	Application to destroy. Tier words and `domain` are rejected (see Overview).	`fjall destroy api`

Options

Option	Description	Example
`-f, --force`	Skip destruction confirmation (shows as skipped in the UI)	`fjall destroy api --force`
`--skip-confirmation`	Skip destruction confirmation prompts	`fjall destroy api --skip-confirmation`
`--target <target>`	Override the active deployment target for this destruction	`fjall destroy api --target production-use1`
`-v, --verbose`	Enable verbose output	`fjall destroy api -v`
`--non-interactive`	Force plain CLI output (no UI)	`fjall destroy api --force --non-interactive`

--target selects which account and region the credentials come from. The positional argument stays the application name.

Agent options

For AI-agent and scripted use, destroy also accepts the standard agent flags:

Option	Description
`--agent`	Emit machine-readable agent output.
`--budget <level>`	Output verbosity budget for agent mode.
`--fields <fields>`	Restrict the output to named fields.
`--full`	Include the full result payload.

Without --force or --skip-confirmation, agent mode returns a structured destructive-confirmation gate naming the exact command to re-run.

Tier destroy options

fjall org destroy, fjall platform destroy and fjall account destroy take -f, --force, --skip-confirmation and --target <target>, plus the standard and agent flags above. --no-cascade is available on fjall org destroy only. --target is refused on fjall org destroy, because organisation infrastructure always deploys to the management account:

--target does not apply to organisation deployments — organisation
infrastructure always deploys to the management account.

Aliases

destroy has one alias, delete:

fjall delete api    # Same as fjall destroy api

fjall remove is not a destroy alias. It is the codemod command that removes a single resource from an application’s infrastructure.ts source file. It deletes no deployed AWS resources. See fjall remove.

Examples

# Guided teardown with pickers and a typed confirmation
fjall destroy

# Destroy one application, confirming by typing its name
fjall destroy api

# CI teardown, no prompts
fjall destroy api --force --non-interactive

# Destroy into a specific account and region
fjall destroy api --target staging-euw1 --force

# Tear down the organisation stack only
fjall org destroy --no-cascade

# Tear down organisation, platform and every member account
fjall org destroy

# Verbose progress
fjall destroy api -v

Common issues

Stack stuck in DELETE_FAILED

CloudFormation reports the resource blocking the delete. Open the stack’s Events tab in the CloudFormation console, clear the blocker, then run the same fjall destroy command again.

S3 bucket not empty

Fjall empties buckets tagged for auto-delete before deleting the stack. Buckets without that tag are left in place and can block the delete. Empty them, then re-run the destroy.

RDS deletion protection enabled

Deletion protection blocks the stack delete while it is on. Disable it in the RDS console, then re-run the destroy.

Retry, then fall back

Read the CloudFormation events for the failed stack.
Clear the blocker (empty the bucket, disable the protection).
Re-run the same fjall destroy command. Destroy is re-runnable and skips stacks that are already gone.
Delete the remaining stack from the AWS Console as a last resort.

Before you destroy

Snapshot the database. RDS and Aurora take a final snapshot on delete, and production instances retain their automated snapshots. Confirm the snapshot exists in the RDS console before you start.
Copy bucket contents you need. Anything in a bucket tagged for auto-delete goes with the stack.
Export the logs you want to keep. CloudWatch log groups are deleted with their stack.
Check what the application declares. Run fjall list -a api to see every resource in the application’s infrastructure.ts.
Rehearse in a non-production account first.

After the destroy finishes, confirm in the AWS Console that the stacks are gone and that billing for those resources has stopped.

CloudFormation stacks can take 5-10 minutes to delete. A cascading fjall org destroy across several member accounts takes considerably longer.

Next Steps

fjall deploy

Redeploy an application or tier infrastructure.

fjall remove

Remove one resource from infrastructure.ts without touching AWS.

fjall list

Inspect the resources an application declares.

fjall restore

Restore data from a snapshot after teardown.

Core Commands

Infrastructure Codemods

Insights

Management Commands

Build & CI

Environments & Data

Diagnostics & Recovery

Authentication

Agent Mode

fjall destroy

Overview

Prerequisites

Usage

Destroy an application

What survives the destroy

Tear down tier infrastructure

Cascade control

Interactive flow

Confirmation

Arguments

Options

Agent options

Tier destroy options

Aliases

Examples

Common issues

Stack stuck in DELETE_FAILED

S3 bucket not empty

RDS deletion protection enabled

Retry, then fall back

Before you destroy

Next Steps

fjall deploy

fjall remove

fjall list

fjall restore

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​Usage

​Destroy an application

​What survives the destroy

​Tear down tier infrastructure

​Cascade control

​Interactive flow

​Confirmation

​Arguments

​Options

​Agent options

​Tier destroy options

​Aliases

​Examples

​Common issues

​Stack stuck in DELETE_FAILED

​S3 bucket not empty

​RDS deletion protection enabled

​Retry, then fall back

​Before you destroy

​Next Steps

fjall deploy

fjall remove

fjall list

fjall restore

Overview

Prerequisites

Usage

Destroy an application

What survives the destroy

Tear down tier infrastructure

Cascade control

Interactive flow

Confirmation

Arguments

Options

Agent options

Tier destroy options

Aliases

Examples

Common issues

Stack stuck in DELETE_FAILED

S3 bucket not empty

RDS deletion protection enabled

Retry, then fall back

Before you destroy

Next Steps