# Reset > Re-run the setup questions over an existing Dex vault when preferences or setup answers changed, without losing data. Use when the user says 'restructure my Dex', 'redo my setup', 'my pillars are wrong now'. Not for a job or role change; use `change-job` — it runs this same reset plus the people, archive and task passes. Not for first-time setup; use `setup`. Not for just toggling one feature; use `manage-capabilities`. - Skill: `davekilleen/reset` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add davekilleen/reset` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/davekilleen/reset/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: davekilleen (https://skillmd.com/u/davekilleen) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/davekilleen/reset --- # Reset Dex for changed answers If `04-Projects/` does not exist, this vault was never set up. Use `setup` instead. If the user actually changed jobs or roles — new employer, new email domain, an old identity to archive — use `change-job` instead: it runs this same reset and then guides the passes a reset alone never touches (re-sorting people for the new domain, archiving old-role goals, priorities and projects, re-pointing open tasks). A reset by itself is the right lever only for changed preferences or answers within the same working life. To turn a single room on or off, use `manage-capabilities` — it is a much smaller change than a full reset and never touches the rest of the profile. Otherwise: 1. Tell the user what a reset does and does not do, and get an explicit yes before calling anything: > "I'll walk you through the same questions as first-time setup and rewrite your > profile — role, company, pillars, communication style, working week and rooms. > Every setting you don't re-answer carries forward unchanged, and nothing > you've written is deleted or moved: your notes, people, meetings and > projects all stay exactly where they are. Want to go ahead?" Stop here if they decline. 2. Call `start_onboarding_session(force_new=True)` from `onboarding-mcp`. The `force_new` flag is what makes this a reset rather than resuming a half-finished setup. Know what it re-arms: the fresh session clears the calendar answer and the harness confirmation, so the flow's calendar step and harness-selection confirmation must both be replayed — `finalize_onboarding` refuses to run until each has been addressed again. Do not skip past them expecting the old answers to still count. 3. Read `.claude/flows/onboarding.md` and follow it as the single source of the conversation, exactly as `setup` does. 4. Before finalizing, call `finalize_onboarding(dry_run=True)` and show the user what it reports it would create, plus the `profile_changes` list — every profile setting that will change, old value → new value. Settings not in that list carry forward. Tell the user that on a vault that already completed onboarding, finalizing first takes a snapshot of the current profile, pillars and room choices — before anything is rewritten — so the reset can be checked afterwards and undone if it went wrong. Then call `finalize_onboarding()`. 5. After finalizing, show the user the `transition_verification` summary from the finalize response — it reads "Changed (you chose): … Carried forward: N settings. Lost: none." Read it before relaying it: if it reports anything lost or changed outside their answers, say so plainly instead of declaring success, and offer `restore_transition_capsule` — preview first (it defaults to a dry run), then rerun it with `dry_run=false` if they want the two settings files put back exactly as they were. `verify_transition` re-runs the same check anytime against the snapshot named in the response. ## What a reset actually changes Say this honestly — do not promise more: - **Rewritten:** `System/user-profile.yaml`, `System/pillars.yaml`, and the room set, through the onboarding MCP and `core/capabilities.py`. - **Carried forward:** on a vault that completed onboarding, every profile setting the user does not re-answer keeps its current value — calendar connection, work email, working context, journaling, meeting sources, timezone, quarterly planning, entity-creation mode, analytics identity, and the rest. Rooms the user disabled stay disabled unless they are re-answered. In `System/pillars.yaml`, `priority_limits` survives, and a pillar kept under the same name keeps its keywords and description. Only a vault that never finished onboarding is rebuilt from the answers alone. - **Added if missing:** any folders and starter files the new role needs. Finalizing only creates what is not already there. - **Left alone:** every existing folder and file. A reset does not rename, merge or move your content. If the new role means you want `Pipeline/` renamed to `Portfolio/`, that is a manual choice the user makes afterwards — offer to help, do not do it silently as part of the reset. The completion marker keeps its original setup date; the reset is recorded alongside it, not over it. - **Snapshotted and checked:** before rewriting anything, finalize captures the current `user-profile.yaml`, `pillars.yaml` and room states, then verifies the result against the keys the re-answered steps were allowed to change. The snapshot stays in `System/.dex/transition-capsules/` and can restore those two files exactly — it is not a backup of anything else. ## Rules This file deliberately contains no question script, no role list and no company-size list, so reset cannot fork away from setup. The roles, the area→role picker and every other question live in `.claude/flows/onboarding.md`; change them only there. Never create folders, move files, or edit `CLAUDE.md` or `System/user-profile.yaml` by hand in this skill. `core/provision.cjs`, `core.lifecycle.service` and `core/capabilities.py` own all vault mutation, and the onboarding MCP owns all profile writes and their validation. --- ## Track Usage (Silent) Update `System/usage_log.md` to mark vault reset as used. **Analytics (Silent):** Call `track_event` with event_name `vault_reset` and properties: - (no properties) This only fires if the user has opted into analytics. No action needed if it returns "analytics_disabled".