Add option to delete a realm by jurgenwerk · Pull Request #4173 · cardstack/boxel

jurgenwerk · 2026-03-12T10:22:10Z

Screen.Recording.2026-03-12.at.13.19.09.mov

Summary

add a workspace chooser context menu action to delete user-owned realms and show a richer destructive confirmation
add a realm-server delete endpoint that removes source realms, published copies, related permissions, and soft-deletes claimed domains
add host acceptance coverage and targeted realm-server endpoint coverage for the delete flow

Testing

pnpm ember test --path dist --filter "workspace-chooser-delete"
TEST_MODULE=server-endpoints/delete-realm-test.ts pnpm test-module
pnpm lint (packages/host)
pnpm lint (packages/realm-server)

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds end-to-end “delete realm/workspace” support, spanning host UI (workspace chooser action + destructive confirmation), realm-server endpoint implementation, and test coverage to validate both server-side deletion behavior and the host flow.

Changes:

Added DELETE /_delete-realm realm-server endpoint and wired it into routing.
Introduced shared realm destruction utilities and refactored unpublish to use them.
Added realm-server endpoint tests, host acceptance tests, and CI inclusion for the new test module.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
packages/realm-server/tests/server-endpoints/delete-realm-test.ts	New endpoint coverage for deleting source realms, published copies, permissions, and domain-claim soft deletion.
packages/realm-server/tests/index.ts	Registers the new delete-realm endpoint test.
packages/realm-server/routes.ts	Adds `DELETE /_delete-realm` route with JWT middleware.
packages/realm-server/handlers/realm-destruction-utils.ts	New shared helper for deleting realm contents + unmounting.
packages/realm-server/handlers/handle-unpublish-realm.ts	Refactors published realm removal to use the new shared helper.
packages/realm-server/handlers/handle-delete-realm.ts	New handler implementing the server-side realm deletion flow.
packages/host/tests/helpers/realm-server-mock/routes.ts	Adds mock realm-server route for `/_delete-realm` used by host acceptance tests.
packages/host/tests/acceptance/workspace-chooser-delete-test.gts	Adds acceptance coverage for enabling/disabling delete and for the delete confirmation UI content.
packages/host/app/services/realm.ts	Adds `removeRealm()` to evict a realm resource locally after deletion.
packages/host/app/services/realm-server.ts	Adds `deleteRealm()` client method calling the new realm-server endpoint.
packages/host/app/services/matrix-service.ts	Adds helper to remove a realm URL from Matrix account data.
packages/host/app/components/operator-mode/workspace-chooser/workspace.gts	Adds workspace context menu + delete confirmation modal and deletion workflow.
packages/host/app/components/operator-mode/workspace-chooser/index.gts	Enables the workspace menu in the chooser list.
packages/host/app/components/operator-mode/delete-modal.gts	Makes delete modal content more flexible and adds size override support.
.github/workflows/ci.yaml	Ensures the new realm-server endpoint test is included in CI’s test-module list.

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packages/realm-server/handlers/realm-destruction-utils.ts

packages/realm-server/handlers/handle-delete-realm.ts

packages/host/app/components/operator-mode/workspace-chooser/index.gts

packages/realm-server/handlers/realm-destruction-utils.ts

github-actions · 2026-03-12T10:29:53Z

Preview deployments

github-actions · 2026-03-12T10:51:52Z

Host Test Results

1 files ± 0 1 suites ±0 2h 36m 11s ⏱️ + 13m 10s
2 025 tests +15 2 009 ✅ +14 15 💤 ±0 0 ❌ ±0 1 🔥 +1
2 040 runs +15 2 023 ✅ +13 15 💤 ±0 1 ❌ +1 1 🔥 +1

For more details on these errors, see this check.

Results for commit 804b4dc. ± Comparison against base commit 3665973.

This pull request removes 1 and adds 16 tests. Note that renamed tests count towards both.

Chrome ‑ Integration | operator-mode | card catalog: Show only preserves scroll position of the focused section

Chrome ‑ Acceptance | AI Assistant tests: LLM select footer hides "Restore default" when default system card is active
Chrome ‑ Acceptance | AI Assistant tests: LLM select footer shows "Go to current system card" action
Chrome ‑ Acceptance | AI Assistant tests: LLM select footer shows "Restore default" when non-default system card is active
Chrome ‑ Acceptance | AI Assistant tests: duplicate model IDs render as distinct menu items with correct state
Chrome ‑ Acceptance | workspace-chooser-delete: can delete a workspace created by the current user from the chooser
Chrome ‑ Acceptance | workspace-chooser-delete: delete workspace is enabled only for a workspace created by the current user
Chrome ‑ Integration | Command | host command schema generation test > command schema generation: getInputJsonSchema for GetUserSystemCardCommand
Chrome ‑ Integration | Command | host command schema generation test > command schema generation: getInputJsonSchema for SyncOpenRouterModelsCommand
Chrome ‑ Integration | commands | get-user-system-card: returns the active system card ID when one is set
Chrome ‑ Integration | commands | get-user-system-card: returns undefined cardId when no system card is set
…

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

jurgenwerk · 2026-03-12T12:41:30Z

I had no design for this so I vibed it. I'll show it to the design people and get feedback. In the meanwhile this is ready for review.

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chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-03-12T13:22:10Z

packages/host/app/components/operator-mode/workspace-chooser/workspace.gts

+      await this.realmServer.deleteRealm(this.args.realmURL);
+      await this.matrixService.removeRealmFromAccountData(this.args.realmURL);
+      this.recentFilesService.removeRecentFilesForRealmURL(this.args.realmURL);


Recover from matrix update failures after realm deletion

The delete flow performs deleteRealm first and only then updates Matrix account data, but all subsequent cleanup is inside the same try. If removeRealmFromAccountData fails (for example, a transient Matrix API error), the catch path skips local cleanup and leaves the just-deleted workspace in account data/recent UI state; a retry then hits _delete-realm with a 404 because the realm is already gone. This creates a hard-to-recover partial-failure state for end users.

Useful? React with 👍 / 👎.

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-03-12T13:22:10Z

packages/host/app/components/operator-mode/workspace-chooser/workspace.gts

+      let isActiveWorkspace =
+        this.operatorModeStateService.realmURL === this.args.realmURL ||
+        this.operatorModeStateService
+          .getOpenCardIds()
+          .some((cardId) => cardId.startsWith(this.args.realmURL)) ||


Include published realm URLs in active-workspace detection

The active-workspace check only looks for the source realm URL, but deleting a workspace also deletes its published realms on the server. If a user currently has stack items or code paths under one of those published URLs, this condition stays false and the stacks are not cleared, leaving open references to resources that were just removed and causing follow-on load/edit failures.

Useful? React with 👍 / 👎.

habdelra · 2026-03-12T13:40:20Z

are there any odd behaviors if you have an existing chat with AI that has artifacts from a deleted realm?

jurgenwerk · 2026-03-12T14:17:33Z

Yeah the assistant will show errors for attached cards that used to work but are now deleted. Perhaps we can adjust this to say the cards/files are not found

habdelra · 2026-03-13T00:26:01Z

@IanCal this is the PR that we can use for removing a realm for teh software factory so that realms become more disposable. probably a good next step is to make a command and skill for this (and prob refactor the menu logic here to call the command)

habdelra · 2026-03-13T00:29:58Z

packages/realm-server/tests/server-endpoints/delete-realm-test.ts

+    return response.body.data.id as string;
+  }
+
+  test('DELETE /_delete-realm removes a created realm, its published copies, and related domain claims', async function (assert) {


i think there is more cleanup. we should delete all items for the deleted realm in the realm_versions, boxel_index, boxel_working_index, and modules tables and add assertions our tests for that. Also probably we should delete any pending jobs in the jobs table that are tied to the deleted realm's concurrency group (indexing:<realm_url>)

maybe also ask AI to think of any other tables that might need cleanup

maybe a way to detect this is to dump the database and look for any mentions of the should-have-been-deleted realm name

Add realm delete workflow

fd1abdb

jurgenwerk requested a review from Copilot March 12, 2026 10:25

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of jurgenwerk March 12, 2026 10:25 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

jurgenwerk added 3 commits March 12, 2026 11:58

Address review feedback on realm delete flow

e00e903

Stabilize workspace delete tests

b7bc93c

Remove workspace files from recent files

ec5b945

jurgenwerk marked this pull request as ready for review March 12, 2026 13:11

jurgenwerk requested review from a team and habdelra March 12, 2026 13:12

chatgpt-codex-connector bot reviewed Mar 12, 2026

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habdelra reviewed Mar 13, 2026

View reviewed changes

Clean up realm artifacts on delete

8413e27

jurgenwerk marked this pull request as draft March 13, 2026 11:12

jurgenwerk added 2 commits March 13, 2026 14:16

Add more cleanup

ccb1dfe

If card is deleted (not found), show a more exact error message

804b4dc

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