Delete

Use the Delete API to remove rows that match a condition or delete an entire table. Deletion is irreversible.

DELETE https://api.telemetry.sh/delete

Headers

Scope rules:

• DELETE /delete requires write or read-and-write

Body

If where is omitted, Telemetry treats the request as a whole-table delete.

Success responses

Delete responses are asynchronous cleanup acknowledgements. The API returns 200 OK as soon as the delete rewrite or table-disable step has been scheduled successfully.

Delete matching rows

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Delete rewrite completed; part cleanup is asynchronous"
}

Delete an entire table

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Table disabled; part cleanup is asynchronous"
}

Example usage with cURL

To delete all rows older than 3 days from the table named uber_rides using cURL, you can use the following command:

API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
WHERE_CONDITION="timestamp <= (now() - INTERVAL '3 day')"

curl -X DELETE https://api.telemetry.sh/delete \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: $API_KEY" \
  -d @- <<EOF
{
  "table": "uber_rides",
  "where": "$WHERE_CONDITION"
}
EOF

If you want to delete the entire uber_rides table, omit the where field:

API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -X DELETE https://api.telemetry.sh/delete \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: $API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "table": "uber_rides"
  }'

Important notes

• If you omit the where condition, the delete endpoint deletes the entire table.
• You cannot recover deleted data.
• Prefer the Tables API for whole-table lifecycle operations when possible. DELETE /delete remains useful for row-level deletes with a where clause.

Common errors

• 400 Bad Request if the JSON body is invalid
• 400 Bad Request if the table name contains invalid characters after normalization
• 403 Forbidden if the API key only has read scope
• 401 Unauthorized if the API key is missing or invalid
• 404 Not Found if you try to delete rows from a table that has no schema yet
• 500 Internal Server Error if Telemetry fails to execute the delete request