diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 9fd34afeb..68cc4db1f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ find_package(RRuntime REQUIRED)
 
 add_subdirectory(src)
 add_subdirectory(R_lib)
-add_subdirectory(app)
 add_subdirectory(bench)
 
 # as tug will also pull in doctest as a dependency
diff --git a/app/CMakeLists.txt b/app/CMakeLists.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index bd4fc4bf1..000000000
--- a/app/CMakeLists.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-
-# add_executable(poet poet.cpp)
-# target_include_directories(poet PUBLIC "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
-# target_link_libraries(poet PUBLIC poet_lib MPI::MPI_CXX)
-
-# install(TARGETS poet DESTINATION bin)