What gets deleted and what is kept when I delete a Tares project?

Tares removes the project and the triggers, agents and MCP servers it made, revokes its keys and ends joined agents’ subscriptions. Parts another project uses, unticked sources and stored events are kept. You decide per source in the delete dialog, and events go only if you tick the purge option.

How it works

Sources, triggers, agents, MCP servers and skills belong to the instance, not to one project, so Delete only removes what is safe to remove. The Projects page describes the model in full. This is what happens when you delete a project.

Deleted

• The project itself.
• The triggers, agents and MCP servers the project made.
• The project’s skills, unless another project uses them.
• The project’s keys, which are revoked.
• The subscriptions of agents that joined the project from outside Tares, which end.
• Any source you tick in the dialog, unless another project uses it.

Kept

• A part the project made that another project uses. That other project becomes its maker, and the part is listed as kept_shared.
• A part the project only used, which is not touched.
• Every source you leave unticked. It stays connected. If no other project uses it, it moves to the Default project.
• A ticked source that another project uses. It is kept and listed as kept.
• Events already stored, unless you tick the purge option.

The dialog lists the project’s sources with one checkbox each, and none are ticked. Sources are shared, so Tares never deletes one unless you choose it. The purge option reads “also purge the events of the sources deleted and its triggers’ firings”. Without it, stored events stay even for a source you deleted.

Two cases differ. The Default project has no Delete button. A draft from a guided setup you left part way has a Delete draft button, and since nothing of a draft is set up yet, deleting it touches no part.

Set it up

1. Open the project from Projects in the console sidebar. Click its name in the list.
2. Click Delete. It sits in the Setup view and in the header of Advanced setup, next to Pause and Edit.
3. In the dialog, review the list of the project’s sources. Tick only the sources you want deleted. Leave the rest unticked and they stay connected.
4. Tick the purge option only if you also want the stored events of the deleted sources and the firings of the deleted triggers gone.
5. Confirm. Check the result for kept_shared (parts another project now owns) and kept (sources another project still uses).

On the management API, the same choices are query parameters on one call:

DELETE /api/projects/{id}?delete_sources=a,b&purge_events=true

• delete_sources names the sources to delete too. The value all names every source of the project.
• Left out, or set to none, every source is kept.
• purge_events purges the deleted sources’ events and the deleted triggers’ firings.
• A draft is deleted the same way.

To see what is shared before you delete, open All resources in the sidebar. It lists every part with the projects that use it.

What you get

• A clean removal of the project and the wiring it created, with no leftover keys or live subscriptions from outside agents.
• Safety for shared work. Another project keeps running with the part it uses, and it becomes the part’s maker.
• Control over your data. Sources stay connected unless you tick them, and events stay unless you purge them.
• A clear record of what was spared, through the kept_shared and kept lists.

If you delete a source on its own page instead, Tares lists the triggers and agents that depend on it and offers to delete them too. Without that the delete is refused, naming what would break. When you delete a trigger, the agents it woke stay and a handoff can still start them. You can give them another trigger. A deleted MCP server drops off the agents that listed it.

When something else fits

• To take a part out of a project without deleting anything, use Edit or Remove from project. A part no project uses any more goes to the Default project.
• To stop a project for a while, use Pause. Resume brings back what it stopped. For projects that watch your systems, see AI SRE.
• To remove one source and everything that depends on it, delete it on its own page.

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