Delete a Saved Object type

This page describes how to remove a Saved Object type (unregister the type definition from your plugin). It does not cover deleting Saved Object instances via the client.

When you remove a Saved Object type from your plugin, you must ensure its name cannot be reused later.

Once a type has been registered and used in production, its name is reserved. Reusing that name for a different type would:

• Cause migration conflicts — Old documents with the removed type could conflict with new documents of the same type name.
• Cause upgrade failures — Upgrades from older versions could hit migration failures if the same type name is reused.

Kibana keeps a list of removed type names in packages/kbn-check-saved-objects-cli/removed_types.json so those names are never reused.

Remove the type registration from your plugin, delete the type definition file, and remove any references to the type.

Run the check that detects removed types and updates removed_types.json:

# Get your current commit ID
git log -n 1

# Get the merge-base commit with main
git merge-base -a <currentCommitSha> main

# Run the check with the baseline
node scripts/check_saved_objects --baseline <mergeBase> --fix
		

Replace <currentCommitSha> with the commit SHA from the first command and <mergeBase> with the merge-base SHA from the second.

This will:

1. Compare current registered types to the baseline (merge-base with main).
2. Detect removed types.
3. Add the removed type name(s) to removed_types.json.
4. Exit with an error message listing the types that were added.

Example output:

❌ The following SO types are no longer registered: 'my-removed-type'.
Updated 'removed_types.json' to prevent the same names from being reused in the future.
		

Commit both your code changes and the updated removed_types.json.

To update removed_types.json by hand:

1. Open packages/kbn-check-saved-objects-cli/removed_types.json.
2. Add the removed type name to the array in alphabetical order.
3. Save the file.

Before removing a type:

• No references — Ensure no other Saved Object types reference the type you are removing.
• Data migration — If users have documents of this type, ensure they have been migrated or are no longer needed.
• Stakeholders — Confirm with your team and any dependent teams that the removal is expected.