Skip to main content
For the complete documentation index for agents and LLMs, see llms.txt.

Delete an Index

Delete an index you no longer need.


About This Task​

Deleting an index is permanent, and it works even if pipelines still use the index. The confirmation dialog lists the affected pipelines.

Delete an Index in the UI​

  1. Log in to Haystack Enterprise Platform and open Indexes.
  2. Find the index you want to delete, click More Actions next to it, and choose Delete. You can also open the index and choose Delete in the index header.
  3. Review the confirmation dialog:
    • If no pipeline uses the index, the dialog asks you to confirm the deletion.
    • If pipelines use the index, the dialog lists all of them, both deployed and undeployed, and warns that they lose access to the index data. References inside agent tools may also break.
  4. Confirm the deletion.

The index is deleted. If the deletion fails, an error message explains why.

Delete an Index with the API​

The delete index endpoint accepts an optional force query parameter. It defaults to false.

  • With force=false, the request fails if deployed pipelines still use the index. Use this to avoid breaking deployed pipelines by accident.
  • With force=true, the index is deleted even if pipelines still use it. Use this when you've already decided to delete the index regardless of the pipelines that use it.

The UI always sends the request with force=true.

curl --request DELETE \
--url "https://api.cloud.deepset.ai/api/v1/workspaces/<WORKSPACE_NAME>/indexes/<INDEX_NAME>?force=true" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>"

A successful request returns status 204. For all parameters and responses, see the Delete Index API reference.

What To Do Next​

Open the pipelines that used the deleted index and connect them to another index, or remove the index from them. Otherwise, queries to those pipelines can't retrieve data from the deleted index. For details, see Edit a Pipeline.