Delete Issues

When an issue is no longer needed — duplicates, mistakes, or abandoned work — delete it. Deletion is soft and recoverable through git.

Delete an issue

xpo delete <id>

You'll be prompted to confirm. Skip the prompt with --force:

xpo delete <id> --force

Record a reason

xpo delete <id> --reason "duplicate of myapp-a1b2c3"

The reason is stored in the DELETE event and visible in the audit trail.

In the web board

Click Delete issue at the bottom of an issue's sidebar, or right-click an issue and choose Delete (or press ⌘⌫). Both open the same confirmation dialog, which shows the issue's status, ID and title. If the issue has sub-issues, choose Keep sub-issues or Delete all. A toast confirms the delete.

Delete issue

What happens on delete

Deletion is soft — the issue is hidden from normal listings but its full history is preserved. You can always recover a deleted issue through git.

Deleted issues are cleaned up when you run xpo archive.

Archiving

Old terminal (DONE, CANCELED, DUPLICATE) and deleted issues accumulate events over time. Archive them to keep the active log small:

xpo archive
xpo archive --days 14             # archive closed issues older than 14 days
xpo archive --keep 20             # retain 20 most recent closed
xpo archive -y                    # skip confirmation

Archived issues are moved to a separate store to keep your active backlog fast. Commands search the archive automatically when an issue isn't found in the active set.