When managing entities in Reltio, you may use the deleteByUris API with mode=hard to permanently remove records. It’s essential to understand how this works when entities have been merged and why you need to perform an unmerge before actually performing a hard delete against either the winner or the loser.
API that is utilized.
POST /entities/_deleteByUris?mode=hard
Payload: ["entities/{loserEntityId}"]What Happens After a Merge
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When two entities are merged:
The loser entity becomes an alias of the winner entity.
The winning entity remains the active record.
How Hard Delete Works
If you run a hard delete (deleteByUris?mode=hard) on the loser entity:
- The request will remove the entire merged object.
- This means both the loser's alias and the winner's record are deleted.
This behavior occurs because, after merging, the system treats the loser and winner as one combined entity.
Key Takeaway
A hard delete on a loser entity after a merge will also delete the surviving winner entity.
This is expected behavior of the Reltio platform.
Best Practice
Always double-check whether the entity you plan to delete has been merged with another or automatically perform an unmerge.
Use soft delete if you want to remove only specific references or avoid deleting the active surviving entity.
Review documentation on Soft vs. Hard Deletes in Reltio.
How to perform an unmerge.
POST https://<env>/reltio/api/<tenant_id>/<winner>/_unmerge?contributorURI=<loser>
The above endpoint is used in Reltio to unmerge a previously merged entity.
<env>: Your Reltio environment (e.g., dev, prod).
<tenant_id>: The tenant ID where the entities exist.
<winner>: The URI or ID of the merged ("surviving") entity.
contributorURI=<loser>: The URI of the entity that was merged into the winner and you now want to detach (the "loser").
What does it do?
This endpoint detaches the specified contributor (loser) from the merged entity (winner).
The result is that the "loser" entity is restored as a separate entity, reversing the merge for that contributor.
The operation does not consider previous merges—it simply detaches the specified contributor from the winner.
Example
POST https://eutst-01.reltio.com/reltio/api/tsten/entities/TyD5Mut/_unmerge?contributorURI=entities/TyD5VRP
This would detach entities/TyD5VRP from entities/TyD5Mut, restoring TyD5VRP as a separate entity.
Note: Use this endpoint to undo a merge between two entities and restore the original contributor as a standalone entity.
If you’re unsure whether an entity has been merged, check the entity’s history or activity stream before performing a hard delete.
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