Delete Vectors

POST

vectors

delete

Delete Vectors

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete

import requests

url = "https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete"

response = requests.post(url)

print(response.text)

const options = {method: 'POST'};

fetch('https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete"

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, nil)

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.example.com/v1/vectors/delete")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

Delete specific items from the index by their IDs.

Authentication

Required - API key via X-API-Key header:

X-API-Key: cyborg_your_api_key_here

You can get an API key from the CyborgDB Admin Dashboard. For more info, follow this guide.

Request Body

{
  "index_name": "my_index",
  "index_key": "64_character_hex_string_representing_32_bytes",
  "ids": ["item_1", "item_2", "item_3"]
}

Show parameters

index_name

string

required

Name of the target index

index_key

string

required

32-byte encryption key as hex string

ids

array[string]

required

List of item IDs to delete

Response

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "3 items deleted successfully"
}

Exceptions

401: Authentication failed (invalid API key)
404: Index not found
422: Invalid request parameters
500: Internal server error

If some IDs don’t exist in the index, they will be silently ignored and the operation will continue with the existing IDs.

Example Usage

Delete Single Item:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/v1/vectors/delete" \
     -H "X-API-Key: cyborg_your_api_key_here" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "index_name": "my_index",
       "index_key": "your_64_character_hex_key_here",
       "ids": ["item_1"]
     }'

Delete Multiple Items:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/v1/vectors/delete" \
     -H "X-API-Key: cyborg_your_api_key_here" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "index_name": "my_index",
       "index_key": "your_64_character_hex_key_here",
       "ids": ["item_1", "item_2", "item_3", "item_4", "item_5"]
     }'

Batch Delete:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/v1/vectors/delete" \
     -H "X-API-Key: cyborg_your_api_key_here" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "index_name": "cleanup_index",
       "index_key": "your_64_character_hex_key_here",
       "ids": [
         "old_1", "old_2", "old_3", "old_4", "old_5",
         "temp_1", "temp_2", "temp_3", "temp_4", "temp_5",
         "test_1", "test_2", "test_3", "test_4", "test_5"
       ]
     }'

Safe Delete Pattern

# First, verify items exist
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/v1/vectors/get" \
     -H "X-API-Key: cyborg_your_api_key_here" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "index_name": "my_index",
       "index_key": "your_64_character_hex_key_here",
       "ids": ["item_to_delete"],
       "include": ["metadata"]
     }'

# Then delete if confirmed
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/v1/vectors/delete" \
     -H "X-API-Key: cyborg_your_api_key_here" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "index_name": "my_index",
       "index_key": "your_64_character_hex_key_here",
       "ids": ["item_to_delete"]
     }'

Data Removal

When vectors are deleted, the following data is permanently removed:

Vector embeddings: The stored vector representation
Item contents: Any associated text or binary content
Metadata: All key-value metadata pairs for the item
Index references: Internal index pointers to the deleted items

Performance Considerations

Batch operations: Delete multiple items in single requests for better performance
Index impact: Large deletions may affect index efficiency; consider retraining after significant deletions
Memory: Deleted items may not immediately free memory until index optimization occurs

Use Cases

Data cleanup: Remove outdated or invalid items
Content moderation: Delete inappropriate or flagged content
User management: Remove user-associated data upon account deletion
Testing cleanup: Clean up test data after development
Data governance: Remove data that exceeds retention policies

Get Vectors

Delete Index

⌘I

Introduction

Client

Encrypted Index

Types & Getters

Authentication

Request Body

Response

Exceptions

Example Usage

Safe Delete Pattern

Data Removal

Performance Considerations

Use Cases

​Authentication

​Request Body

​Response

​Exceptions

​Example Usage

​Safe Delete Pattern

​Data Removal

​Performance Considerations

​Use Cases

Authentication

Request Body

Response

Exceptions

Example Usage

Safe Delete Pattern

Data Removal

Performance Considerations

Use Cases