Deleting Thoughts

Overview

delete_thought (the open-brain-delete-thought connector) performs a hard delete, the row is gone the moment it returns, with no tombstone, no soft-delete, and no restore. Recovery depends entirely on database backups. The Open Brain maintainer's stance is "deprecate and version rather than delete." So deletion is a last resort, and every delete must target an id you verified this session.

Violating the letter of these rules is violating their spirit.

When to Use

Delete only when both hold:

• The thought is genuinely disposable, a test/throwaway, an exact duplicate, or an accidental capture, and
• Editing or tagging it is not good enough.

If the thought is merely outdated, wrong, or superseded, update it or tag it superseded instead, see the updating-thoughts skill.

Process

1. Resolve the id via search_thoughts / list_thoughts. delete_thought takes a UUID; never delete an id you typed from memory.
2. Show the target and confirm. Surface the thought's content to the user and get explicit confirmation that this specific thought should be removed.
   • Check for derivatives first. Before deleting, run find_derivatives (and/or related_thoughts) on the thought. If other thoughts were derived from it, deleting orphans their provenance chain, those derivatives lose the source they point back to. Prefer deprecating over deleting in that case. Tool names may carry a connector prefix; use whatever the environment exposes.
3. Delete only after confirmation. Call delete_thought(id). It pre-checks existence (a clean "not found" if already gone) and returns the prior content length as a receipt. Report that receipt to the user.

This Is Irreversible, No Exceptions