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Soft Deletes

kiln automatically generates soft delete behavior when a table has a nullable deleted_at timestamp column.

How It Works

Add a nullable timestamp column named deleted_at:

CREATE TABLE posts (
  id         UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
  title      TEXT NOT NULL,
  deleted_at TIMESTAMPTZ  -- nullable = soft delete enabled
);

No config needed. kiln detects the column and changes the generated behavior:

Operation Without deleted_at With deleted_at
DELETE DELETE FROM posts WHERE id = ? UPDATE posts SET deleted_at = now() WHERE id = ?
GET SELECT ... WHERE id = ? SELECT ... WHERE id = ? AND deleted_at IS NULL
LIST SELECT ... LIMIT ? OFFSET ? SELECT ... WHERE deleted_at IS NULL LIMIT ? OFFSET ?
UPDATE SELECT ... WHERE id = ? SELECT ... WHERE id = ? AND deleted_at IS NULL

What Changes

  • DELETE sets deleted_at = now() instead of removing the row
  • GET returns 404 for soft-deleted records
  • LIST excludes soft-deleted records from results and counts
  • UPDATE prevents modifying soft-deleted records (returns 404)
  • Response types exclude the deleted_at field (it's internal)
  • Filters exclude deleted_at (it's managed by kiln, not queryable)

Requirements

The column must be:

  • Named exactly deleted_at
  • Nullable (no NOT NULL constraint)
  • A timestamp type (TIMESTAMPTZ in Postgres, DATETIME in MySQL/SQLite)

Database Support

deleted_at TIMESTAMPTZ

deleted_at DATETIME

deleted_at DATETIME