Delete Custom Rule
delete_ruleRemove an obsolete custom evaluation rule to stop it from affecting future outputs while preserving historical eval results.
Instructions
Remove a deployed custom evaluation rule. The rule stops firing on future evaluate_output calls; past eval_results that referenced it are preserved.
Sibling tools — deploy_rule adds custom rules, list_rules enumerates them, evaluate_output runs them. delete_trace handles trace deletion (separate concern); log_trace / get_traces handle trace I/O. delete_rule is the DESTRUCTIVE remove path for the custom-rule store; it does NOT touch traces, eval_results, or built-in (non-custom) rules.
Behavior. DESTRUCTIVE — rewrites /.iris/custom-rules.json without the deleted row and appends a rule.delete entry to the audit log (/.iris/audit.log). Not idempotent: deleting an already-deleted rule returns deleted: false rather than re-emitting the audit row. The rule stops firing immediately on the live process. Historical eval_results that reference this rule_id stay in the database — drift analytics + audit trail remain valid. Tenant-scoped in Cloud tier; OSS operates on LOCAL_TENANT. Rate-limited to 20 req/min on HTTP MCP.
Output shape. Returns JSON: { "deleted": boolean, "rule_id": string }. deleted=true if a row was removed; deleted=false if no rule with that id existed.
Use when a custom rule is obsolete (behavior changed, false positives unacceptable, replaced by a better rule). Typical flow: list_rules → identify the stale one → delete_rule(id). Combine with deploy_rule to replace: delete_rule(oldId) + deploy_rule(newDefinition). To temporarily disable a rule WITHOUT deletion, use the dashboard's toggle affordance instead — delete is permanent in intent (rule is gone; re-adding requires a new id).
Don't use to pause a rule (toggle in the dashboard preserves history better). Don't use on built-in (non-custom) rules — the rule_id format checks for rule-<hex> custom ids; built-ins aren't in the store. Don't use to delete a trace or eval result (use delete_trace for traces; eval_results deletion is not exposed in v0.4 — they fall under data retention).
Parameters. rule_id is the only parameter; must match rule-<lowercase-hex> format (Zod regex). Format mismatch fails Zod with 400 BEFORE the store is touched. Cross-tenant rule_ids return deleted: false silently — they're invisible to the caller's tenant rather than producing a not-found error (prevents enumeration attacks). The rule_id you pass is exactly what list_rules returned in id or what deploy_rule returned in rule.id.
Error modes. Throws 400 on malformed rule_id (wrong prefix). Returns {deleted: false} if rule_id doesn't match any deployed rule (not an error — idempotent-ish). Returns 429 on HTTP rate limit. File-write failures propagate as 500.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| rule_id | Yes | Rule id to delete (format: rule-<hex>); obtained from list_rules or deploy_rule response |