kitchen destroy

Deletes one or more instances and removes the state Test Kitchen kept for them.

kitchen destroy [INSTANCE|REGEXP|all]

Examples

kitchen destroy                      # every instance
kitchen destroy default-ubuntu-2204  # one instance
kitchen destroy ubuntu               # every instance matching /ubuntu/
kitchen destroy -c                   # all of them, concurrently

Flags

Flag	Alias	Description
`--concurrency [N]`	`-c`	Destroy matching instances concurrently. Unlimited when no number is given.
`--fail-fast`	`-f`	Stop as soon as one instance fails.
`--parallel`	`-p`	Deprecated. Use `--concurrency`.
`--test-base-path PATH`	`-t`	Set the base path for tests.
`--log-level LEVEL`	`-l`	`debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`, or `fatal`.
`--log-overwrite`		Set to `false` to keep old log files.
`--color`		Toggle color output.

Destroy is safe to run against an instance that does not exist. It reports the instance as already destroyed and exits zero, so it is safe to put in a CI cleanup step that always runs.

Cost control

When you use a cloud driver, every instance left running costs money. Two habits prevent surprise bills:

Always destroy at the end of a session.

kitchen destroy

Make CI clean up even when tests fail. In GitHub Actions:

- name: Test
  run: kitchen test
- name: Clean up
  if: always()
  run: kitchen destroy

kitchen test already destroys passing instances by default, but a failing run leaves the instance up for debugging. The if: always() step catches that case.

kitchen destroy can only remove instances it still has state for, in the .kitchen directory. If that directory is deleted, or CI discards it between jobs, the instances keep running and Test Kitchen can no longer see them. Check your provider’s console periodically, and consider tagging instances so orphans are easy to find.

Use kitchen list to see what Test Kitchen currently believes is running, and kitchen list --live to ask the driver what is actually running.