bun unlink

Remove a globally-linked package.

bun unlink

Behavior

bun unlink removes a package from the global link registry.

Unlink current package

Run bun unlink (no arguments) in a package directory to remove its global registration:

cd ~/projects/my-library
bun unlink

This removes the global link so other projects can no longer link to it.

Examples

Unlink a package

$ cd ~/projects/my-utils
$ bun unlink
bun unlink v1.0.0

success: unlinked package "my-utils"

The package is removed from the global registry. Other projects using bun link my-utils will no longer work until the package is re-linked.

What gets removed

When unlinking a package, Bun:

1. Removes the symlink from global node_modules
2. Removes any global bin links
3. Leaves existing project links intact

Remove from a project

To remove a linked package from a specific project (without unlinking globally), use bun remove:

cd ~/projects/my-app
bun remove my-utils

Flags

--cwd <path>

Run command in specified directory.

bun unlink --cwd ~/projects/my-library

--global-dir <path>

Use a custom global directory.

bun unlink --global-dir /custom/path

Re-linking

To re-link a package after unlinking:

cd ~/projects/my-library
bun link

Global bin directory

Globally-linked binaries are stored in:

• macOS/Linux: ~/.bun/install/global/bin
• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.bun\install\global\bin

Unlinking removes binaries from this directory.

Use cases

Clean up after development

# Done developing a local package
cd ~/projects/my-lib
bun unlink

# Unlink from projects using it
cd ~/projects/my-app
bun remove my-lib
bun add my-lib  # Install from registry instead

Switch to published version

# Unlink local development version
cd ~/projects/my-package
bun unlink

# Install published version in app
cd ~/projects/my-app  
bun remove my-package
bun add my-package

Resolve link conflicts

If a package link is broken:

cd ~/projects/package
bun unlink
bun link  # Re-register

Common issues

Package not linked

If running bun unlink shows “package is not globally linked”:

$ bun unlink
success: package "my-package" is not globally linked, so there's nothing to do.

The package wasn’t linked globally. This is not an error.

Projects still reference the package

Unlinking doesn’t automatically remove the package from projects using it. You must manually remove it:

cd ~/projects/app
bun remove my-package

See also

• bun link - Link packages
• bun remove - Remove packages from a project