How to delete files uploaded for the AI Persona

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Users inquired about deleting files uploaded for AI Personas in Discourse, noting that while files can be removed from the Persona via PUT, they remain stored in the database. sam confirmed that file deletion is implemented: files are sent to a tombstone and purged after a retention period — matching the 48-hour grace period described in Discourse’s Understanding Uploads, Images, and Attachments guide sam. MachineScholar highlighted security concerns around immediate deletion, especially for edge cases like rapidly removing personalized RAG chatbots. sam clarified that while embeddings are wiped immediately upon removal, the uploaded file itself remains until retention expires — though early deletion isn’t ruled out, it’s considered a niche requirement. MachineScholar acknowledged the clarification and noted their use case involves many dynamic RAG bots, making immediate purge desirable but uncommon.

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I was looking for a way to actually delete files that are uploaded to discourse for the AI Persona, but I didn’t see a way for it to be done.

I did find some code where the work appears to be started here: discourse-ai/config/routes.rb at 8b81ff45b8dadfdd489cf0f8a86621080dee2af3 · discourse/discourse-ai · GitHub but it doesn’t seem to be implemented at this time.

Are there plans to be able to manage the files that are uploaded to discourse? I did notice that I can remove the file from the Persona by using the PUT method, but the file is still actually stored in the database with no way to remove it as far as I can tell.

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I’m curious about this as well. This seems to be quite a limitation in regard to making a rag persona. Bit I imagine that playing with the vector database is gonna make things real tricky

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I’m wondering if there are any updates on this matter? :thinking:

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This has been implemented for quite a while:

The image displays a screenshot of a webpage, possibly a user interface, with several sections and options, including a search bar, a category list, and a filtering feature. (Captioned by AI)
The image displays a screenshot of a webpage, possibly a user interface, with several sections and options, including a search bar, a category list, and a filtering feature. (Captioned by AI)854×398 26.5 KB

The file itself will be send to the tombstone and eventually removed once retention period passed.

I guess the feature request here is for “immediate purge” on remove?

Moving this to feature.

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That’s splendid! :heart_eyes: But yes, I know that we for example have many edge cases where it would be best to just wipe the embeddings immediately just for security reasons.

Am I correct in thinking that this retention period is the same as this in Understanding Uploads, Images, and Attachments ?

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Yes this is correct.

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The embeddings are wiped right away, the upload is the only thing that is left. Not against wiping it early, but it is an edge case for sure.

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Ah okay I see now. Thank you very much for this information :grinning_face:. We will be having a high number of personalized RAG chatbots, and there may be times when they have to suddenly be removed. Certainly our use case is a niche edge case in and of itself anyway :winking_face_with_tongue:

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