Deleting a package

About private package deletion

You can only delete a specified version of a private package on GitHub or with the GraphQL API. To remove an entire private package from appearing on GitHub, you must delete every version of the package first.

About public package deletion

To avoid breaking projects that may depend on your packages, you cannot delete an entire public package or specific versions of a public package.

Under special circumstances, such as for legal reasons or to conform with GDPR standards, you can ask GitHub Support to delete a public package for you, using our contact form.

Reserved package versions and names

To prevent confusion and build problems, GitHub permanently reserves a package's name and version number. Even if an entire package is deleted, you cannot reuse the deleted package name in any repository owned by the same account.

To revise or replace a package version, we recommend you publish a new version of your package.

Deleting a version of a private package on GitHub

To delete a private package version, you must have admin permissions in the repository.

1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.
2. To the right of the list of files, click Packages.
   
3. Click the name of the package that you want to delete.
   
4. On the right, use the Edit package drop-down and select "Manage versions".
   
5. To the right of the version you want to delete, click Delete.
   
6. To confirm deletion, type the package name and click I understand the consequences, delete this version.
   

Deleting a version of a private package with GraphQL

Use the deletePackageVersion mutation in the GraphQL API. You must use a token with the read:packages, delete:packages, and repo scopes. For more information about tokens, see "About GitHub Packages."

Here is an example cURL command to delete a package version with the package version ID of MDIyOlJlZ2lzdHJ5UGFja2FnZVZlcnNpb243MTExNg, using a personal access token.

curl -X POST \
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.package-deletes-preview+json" \
-H "Authorization: bearer TOKEN" \
-d '{"query":"mutation { deletePackageVersion(input:{packageVersionId:\"MDIyOlJlZ2lzdHJ5UGFja2FnZVZlcnNpb243MTExNg==\"}) { success }}"}' \
https://api.github.com/graphql

To find all of the private packages you have published to GitHub Packages, along with the version IDs for the packages, you can use the registryPackagesForQuery connection. You will need a token with the read:packages and repo scopes. For more information, see "registryPackagesForQuery."

For more information about the deletePackageVersion mutation, see "deletePackageVersion."

You cannot delete an entire package, but if you delete every version of a package, the package will no longer show on GitHub.