Delete data

Delete rows via DELETE. Chain at least one filter to scope which rows are removed, then call .execute. PostgREST refuses an unfiltered DELETE unless you opt in explicitly via max_affected.

Signature

supabase.from(table).delete(count: nil, returning: "representation")

delete takes no positional argument — the rows-to-delete are determined entirely by the filters you chain after it.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`count`	String	Optional	One of "exact", "planned", "estimated". Adds Prefer: count=... so APIResponse#count is populated from the Content-Range header.
`returning`	String	Optional	"representation" (default) returns the deleted rows; "minimal" returns no body, which is faster for fire-and-forget deletes.

Returns

Supabase::Postgrest::FilterRequestBuilder

A chainable builder that mixes in FilterMixin — chain filters to scope the delete, then call .execute to fire the request and receive an APIResponse.

Example — delete one row by primary key

response = supabase
  .from("countries")
  .delete
  .eq("id", 250)
  .execute

response.data  # => [{ "id" => 250, "name" => "Wakanda", ... }]

Example — bulk delete with a compound filter

response = supabase
  .from("sessions")
  .delete
  .lte("expires_at", Time.now.utc.iso8601)
  .eq("revoked", false)
  .execute

response.data.length  # => however many rows were deleted

Example — fire-and-forget delete

returning: "minimal" returns no body, so data is []. Use this when you don't need the deleted rows back.

supabase
  .from("audit_log")
  .delete(returning: "minimal")
  .lt("created_at", "2025-01-01")
  .execute

Example — count what was deleted

response = supabase
  .from("sessions")
  .delete(count: "exact")
  .lte("expires_at", Time.now.utc.iso8601)
  .execute

response.count  # => N rows deleted

Example — guard a wide delete with `max_affected`

max_affected(N) adds Prefer: handling=strict,max-affected=N. PostgREST refuses the delete (returning 400) if the row count would exceed N. Use this any time the filter could match more rows than you intend to remove.

supabase
  .from("login_attempts")
  .delete
  .eq("ip", "203.0.113.7")
  .max_affected(1_000)
  .execute

Example — delete with `in_` (multiple primary keys)

supabase
  .from("countries")
  .delete
  .in_("id", [250, 251, 252])
  .execute

PostgREST refuses unfiltered deletes (no eq/in_/etc. on the chain) unless max_affected is set.

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