Overview

The Shelby CLI provides operations for deleting blobs from the Shelby network. Deletion is a soft delete that marks blobs as deleted on the blockchain.

It is important that the CLI is properly configured with a network and funded account. If not, please visit the Getting Started quick start guide for more information.

`shelby delete`

Delete a blob or folder of blobs from Shelby. You can only delete blobs that you own.

shelby delete [options] <destination>

Options

Flag	Alias	Type	Required	Default	Description
`--recursive`	`-r`	flag		false	Delete all blobs matching the prefix.
`--assume-yes`		flag		false	Skip interactive confirmation. Useful for scripts.

If deleting a single blob, <destination> must be a valid blob name (does not end in /).

When deleting recursively, <destination> must end in /.

Deletion is permanent. Once a blob is deleted, it cannot be recovered. The CLI will prompt for confirmation before deleting unless --assume-yes is provided.

Basic Example

Delete a single blob:

shelby delete files/my-blob.txt

Recursive Deletion

Delete all blobs with a given prefix:

shelby delete folder/ -r
shelby delete my-site/ --recursive

When using --recursive, the destination must end with / to indicate it's a prefix, not a blob name.

Skip Confirmation

For scripting or automation, use --assume-yes to skip the interactive confirmation prompt:

shelby delete old-files/ -r --assume-yes

What Happens During Deletion

The CLI queries the indexer to find matching blobs
For each blob, it verifies:
- The blob exists and hasn't expired
- You own the blob
A delete transaction is submitted to the blockchain
The blob is marked as deleted (soft delete)

Error Cases

Blob not found: If the blob doesn't exist or has already been deleted/expired, the CLI will report an error
Not the owner: You can only delete blobs that belong to your active account
Invalid destination: Single blob deletions cannot end with /, and recursive deletions must end with /

Example Output

🗑️  Delete Summary
────────────────────────────────────────────
📁  Blob Name:   files/my-blob.txt

🧮  Delete list created (1 entry)
⏱️  Took: 0.12345s

Continue?
❯ Yes
  No

✔ Delete complete — 1 blob deleted in 2.34s

🌐  Aptos Explorer:
   https://explorer.aptoslabs.com/txn/0x...

🗂️  Shelby Explorer:
   https://shelbynet.explorer.shelby.xyz/account/0x...

────────────────────────────────────────────
✨  Done!

Deletions