Reset to Factory Defaults

Resetting CertForge removes all issued certificates, CA keys, users, and the SQLite database. Your configuration file (/etc/certforge/config.yaml) is preserved unless you explicitly delete it.

Reset data only (keep config)

# Stop the process
pkill certforge 2>/dev/null; true

# Delete everything in the data directory
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/certforge

# Recreate with correct ownership so certforge can write to it
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/certforge
sudo chown $USER /var/lib/certforge

# Start fresh — first-run wizard appears on next visit
certforge --config /etc/certforge/config.yaml

On the next start, CertForge will:

Create a new SQLite database
Generate a new internal CA
Drop you into the first-run superuser setup wizard

Full reset (wipe config too)

pkill certforge 2>/dev/null; true
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/certforge
sudo rm -f /etc/certforge/config.yaml

Then re-run the installer or recreate the config manually from the example.

PostgreSQL installations

If you configured PostgreSQL instead of SQLite, drop and recreate the database:

psql -U postgres -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS certforge;"
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE certforge OWNER certforge;"

Then restart CertForge — the schema is recreated automatically on startup.

This is irreversible. All issued certificates, audit logs, users, and CA keys will be permanently deleted. Take a backup first if you may need to recover anything.

Upgrading

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Reference

Trust & Security

Self-Hosted

Reset to Factory Defaults

Reset data only (keep config)

Full reset (wipe config too)

PostgreSQL installations

​Reset data only (keep config)

​Full reset (wipe config too)

​PostgreSQL installations

Reset data only (keep config)

Full reset (wipe config too)

PostgreSQL installations