> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hyphaedb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Recipe: erase data with a certificate

> Run a compliant, audited bulk erasure by scope and keep the erasure certificate as a non-repudiable receipt.

**Goal.** Delete an agent's, a project's, or a node's data for a compliance request (e.g. GDPR erasure)
and come away with a **certificate** proving it happened.

**Prerequisites.**

* An **operator session** with admin authority — erasure is an `/admin/api` control-plane operation, not
  a data-plane call. An `erase Agent` scope is `ServiceAdmin`-only; a `ProjectAdmin` may erase within its
  own tenant. See the [admin control plane](/operations/admin-control-plane).

## The safety envelope

Erasure is irreversible, so it carries a **typed confirmation**: the `confirm` field must exactly equal
the scope's canonical label — `agent:<id>`, `project:<id>`, or `node:<uuid>`. A mismatch destroys
nothing and still writes a `Denied` audit of the attempt. Always **dry-run first**.

## Steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Dry-run to see the blast radius">
    `dry_run: true` returns the would-remove counts without deleting anything:

    ```bash theme={null}
    curl -s --cookie "hyphae_admin_session=<your-session>" \
      -X POST "https://console.example/admin/api/erase" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{
        "scope": { "kind": "agent", "id": "agent-1234" },
        "confirm": "agent:agent-1234",
        "dry_run": true
      }'
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run it for real">
    Flip `dry_run` to `false`. The response is the **erasure certificate** — the per-tier removal counts
    (`nodes_removed`, `diffs_removed`, `deliveries_removed`, `sessions_removed`, `tombstones_propagated`,
    …) plus a `digest`:

    ```bash theme={null}
    curl -s --cookie "hyphae_admin_session=<your-session>" \
      -X POST "https://console.example/admin/api/erase" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{
        "scope": { "kind": "agent", "id": "agent-1234" },
        "confirm": "agent:agent-1234",
        "dry_run": false
      }'
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Keep the receipt">
    Store the returned certificate. The erase also writes an `Erase` row to the tamper-evident
    [audit log](/operations/audit-log), so you have two independent records that the deletion occurred.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  To remove a single memory rather than a whole scope, use `POST /admin/api/nodes/{id}/delete` — a
  tombstone-first, idempotent delete that propagates the removal through the mesh. See
  [data lifecycle](/operations/data-lifecycle).
</Note>

## See also

* [Admin control plane](/operations/admin-control-plane) — the erase confirmation, authority, and the certificate fields.
* [Data lifecycle](/operations/data-lifecycle) — the tombstone and erasure mechanics underneath.
* [Audit log](/operations/audit-log) — the `Erase` record and the hash chain.