#1880: Allow reset of installed plugins when launching IDE in force mode

CHANGELOG.adoc

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Release with new features and bugfixes:
 * https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/1853[#1853]: Add ARM releases for VSCode on Mac
 * https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/797[#797]: Use system unzip on macOS to preserve symlinks in ZIP extraction
 * https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/1723[#1723]: Add commandlet for GitHub Copilot CLI
+* https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/1880[#1880]: Reinstall all plugins for IDE in force mode
 
 The full list of changes for this release can be found in https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/milestone/44?closed=1[milestone 2026.05.001].
 

cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/plugin/PluginBasedCommandlet.java

@@ -110,17 +110,32 @@ protected void postInstall(ToolInstallRequest request) {
     Path pluginsInstallationPath = getPluginsInstallationPath();
     FileAccess fileAccess = this.context.getFileAccess();
     if (!request.isAlreadyInstalled()) {
-      fileAccess.delete(pluginsInstallationPath);
+      deleteAllPlugins(pluginsInstallationPath);
+    } else if (this.context.isForceMode()) {
+      // Prompt user if they want to reset all plugins
+      boolean resetPlugins = this.context.question(
+        "You are launching " + getName() + " in force mode. Do you want to reset all plugins for " + getName() + "? "
+        + "This will uninstall all currently installed plugins and reinstall them as configured in your IDEasy project settings.");
+      if (resetPlugins) {
+        deleteAllPlugins(pluginsInstallationPath);
+      }
+    }
+    fileAccess.mkdirs(pluginsInstallationPath);
+    installPlugins(request.getProcessContext());
+  }
+
+  private void deleteAllPlugins(Path pluginsInstallationPath) {
+
+    FileAccess fileAccess = this.context.getFileAccess();
+    fileAccess.delete(pluginsInstallationPath);
       List<Path> markerFiles = fileAccess.listChildren(this.context.getIdeHome().resolve(IdeContext.FOLDER_DOT_IDE), Files::isRegularFile);
       for (Path path : markerFiles) {
         if (path.getFileName().toString().startsWith("plugin." + getName())) {
           LOG.debug("Plugin marker file {} got deleted.", path);
           fileAccess.delete(path);
         }
       }
-    }
-    fileAccess.mkdirs(pluginsInstallationPath);
-    installPlugins(request.getProcessContext());
+
   }
 
   private void installPlugins(ProcessContext pc) {

cli/src/test/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/eclipse/EclipseTest.java

@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ void testEclipse(String os) throws IOException {
     SystemInfo systemInfo = SystemInfoMock.of(os);
     IdeTestContext context = newContext(PROJECT_ECLIPSE, "eclipseproject");
     context.setSystemInfo(systemInfo);
-    context.getStartContext().setForceMode(true); // #663
     Eclipse eclipse = context.getCommandletManager().getCommandlet(Eclipse.class);
 
     // act

documentation/plugin.adoc

@@ -30,3 +30,12 @@ For `VisualStudio Code`,  this is the extension ID you can directly get from the
 |`active`|`true`|(optional) `true` to tell IDEasy that this plugin shall be installed automatically for everybody in your team. Default is `false`. If not auto-installed, it can still be installed via `ide install-plugin «ide» «plugin»`.
 |`tags`|e.g. `java,spring,ai`|(optional) Tags to classify the plugin. Will be used by the GUI of IDEasy for selection by tag.
 |===
+
+
+== Resetting installed plugins
+
+When first installing an IDE using `ide install «ide»`, IDEasy will automatically install all plugins that are configured in the project settings.
+This configuration is intended to serve as a baseline for the entire team.
+However, after the initial setup, you can freely change the plugin configuration for your IDE as you see fit.
+
+To revert to the initial plugin configuration, you can run `ide -f «ide»`, which will give you the option to uninstall all installed plugins and reinstall them as configured in your project settings.