Workspace deletion

Workspace deletion is a complex operation that requires access to the Parsec server and to the object storage.

The steps to delete a workspace can be summarized as follows:

1. A User deletes a workspace (see the userguide or the cli guide)

2. The workspace is marked as scheduled for deletion in the Server (the delay depends on the Organization configuration)

3. When the deletion date has passed, the effective removal can be triggered in the Parsec Server.

4. The corresponding blocks can be deleted from the object storage.

This section describes steps 3 and 4 in order to free up space occupied by workspaces that have been deleted by users.

Delete a workspace

1. List the technical ID of workspaces (realms) to be deleted.

   $ python -m parsec list_deletable_realms --organization $ORGANIZATION_NAME --db $PG_URL
   Found 2 deletion candidate(s):
   Realm b65752f922e4413eb61b87dacbd3f804  kind=deletion_planned  deletion_date=2026-06-09T13:06:02.295211Z
   Realm d78799261b744bc89bae9e52234e6bf3  kind=orphaned          orphaned_since=2026-06-09T13:54:21.458044Z
   

   If the delay has not elapsed, the workspace will not appear here.

   Note

   The workspace name does not appear here, as this is considered a sensitive information: only the workspace users can know their name.

   Note

   A workspace is orphaned when no one has access to it. This can happen when all the users with access to it have been revoked. Unless the organization has a Sequester, no one will be able to recover the data, so it can be deleted.

2. Delete the workspace from the PostgreSQL database

   $ python -m parsec delete_realm --organization $ORGANIZATION_NAME --db $PG_URL --realm 7208844033874dfb9bb49da961d3f65a --dump-realm-blocks paths-to-delete.txt
   Exporting a list of all the realm's block that can be removed  [####################################]  1/1
   Exported 1 block slug(s) to paths-to-delete.txt
   Deleting metadata for realm 7208844033874dfb9bb49da961d3f65a... ✔
   ⚠️ The realm has been deleted, however its blocks are still present in the object storage
   ⚠️ You should now manually clean the object storage by removing all the path listed in paths-to-delete.txt
   

   This command does two things:

   • export the paths to the blocks as they are referenced in the object storage

   • delete the workspace from the postgresql database

   This command does not remove the blocks from your object storage.

3. Purge the object storage from useless objects listed in the output file of the previous command (e.g. paths-to-delete.txt).

   This step depends on your configuration and you backup policy.