diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginDetail.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginDetail.tsx
index 78cddd4e..9d765935 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginDetail.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginDetail.tsx
@@ -295,24 +295,32 @@ const Readme = ({ appName }: { appName: string }) => {
  * plugin. A modal that says "Are you sure?" tests whether you can click twice, not whether you know what
  * you are about to lose.
  *
- * Offered whether or not the plugin is installed, because the state that needs it most is the one where
- * a broken install has already been uninstalled and the directory is still sitting there hiding the
- * plugin from the marketplace.
+ * ── Only once it is uninstalled ──
+ *
+ * This used to be offered in every state, including while the plugin was running. Two clicks — one of
+ * them a confirmation nobody reads the second time — separated a working plugin from its tables being
+ * dropped. Now deleting is the SECOND of two verbs: uninstall stops it and forgets it, and only then can
+ * it be deleted. That is also the order the buttons appear in, so the screen teaches the sequence.
+ *
+ * Nothing is lost by the gate. The state this exists for — a directory sitting on disk keeping the plugin
+ * out of the marketplace — is by definition an uninstalled one.
  */
 const Purge = ({ plugin, busy, onPurge }: { plugin: PluginItem; busy: boolean; onPurge: () => void }) => {
   const [confirming, setConfirming] = useState(false);
 
+  // Installed means uninstall first. The button is absent rather than disabled: a disabled control invites
+  // a hunt for what would enable it, and the answer here is a different button three inches away.
+  if (plugin.installed) return null;
+
   if (!confirming) {
     return (
       <div className="mt-8 border-t border-duck-dark/10 pt-4">
-        <button
-          type="button"
-          disabled={busy}
-          onClick={() => setConfirming(true)}
-          className="cursor-pointer text-xs text-duck-dark/40 underline underline-offset-2 transition-colors hover:text-destructive disabled:opacity-40"
-        >
-          Delete {plugin.label} and all its data
-        </button>
+        <Button tone="danger" disabled={busy} onClick={() => setConfirming(true)}>
+          Delete {plugin.label}
+        </Button>
+        <p className="mt-2 text-xs text-duck-dark/40">
+          Removes its tables, its data and <code>plugins/{plugin.appName}</code> — and puts it back in the marketplace.
+        </p>
       </div>
     );
   }
@@ -482,7 +490,7 @@ export const PluginDetail = () => {
       <p className="mt-4 text-xs text-duck-dark/40">
         {plugin.installed
           ? 'Disabling unmounts its routes and stops its sidecar. Uninstalling also forgets the install — neither deletes anything the plugin stored.'
-          : 'Not installed, but the code is still on this machine — which is why the marketplace does not offer it.'}
+          : 'Not installed, but the code is still on this machine — which is why the marketplace does not offer it. Installing again reuses this directory as it stands; deleting it below gets you a fresh clone.'}
       </p>
 
       <Purge plugin={plugin} busy={busy} onPurge={() => run('purge', plugin.appName)} />
diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginsList.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginsList.tsx
index 7e892f39..c8124ae3 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginsList.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Plugins/PluginsList.tsx
@@ -34,7 +34,11 @@ export const PluginsList = () => {
           that: a count would imply a check that has not happened. */}
       {plugins.length ? (
         <div className="flex items-center justify-between gap-2 border-b border-duck-dark/5 px-3 py-2">
-          <span className="text-xs font-medium uppercase tracking-wide text-duck-dark/40">Installed</span>
+          {/* "On this machine", not "Installed" — the list is every plugin DIRECTORY, and an uninstalled
+              one stays in it. Under the old heading such a row read "Installed · not installed", which is
+              how a real uninstall got mistaken for a failed one: the plugin never moved, so nothing on
+              screen said the directory was still there deciding what a reinstall would run. */}
+          <span className="text-xs font-medium uppercase tracking-wide text-duck-dark/40">On this machine</span>
           <button
             type="button"
             onClick={() => void updateAll()}