Reading this, I believe it means that the file should still exist, but shouldn't be a hardlink or symlink to another file. I think "unlink" was specifically avoided for this reason.

I see. Should this perhaps be modified to something like the following?
make sure _version.py is not a symlink or hardlink before changing it

Would codespell accept quotes around it, like "delink"? Or what about "break the link"?

I think codespell doesn't take punctuation into account. In any case don't bother about codespell, I can add a config file to shut it up if needed (unfortunately tox.ini won't work so it'll be setup.cfg or .codespellrc but I have requested a change in codespell-project/codespell#2086).

The question is whether "need to delink _version.py before changing it" should be clarified for humans - not for codespell.

Sure. Made a suggestion.

Perfect! Thank you.