Delete a character

curl --request DELETE \
  --url https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id} \
  --header 'X-Api-Key: <api-key>'

const options = {method: 'DELETE', headers: {'X-Api-Key': '<api-key>'}};

fetch('https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "DELETE",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "X-Api-Key: <api-key>"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}"

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("DELETE", url, nil)

	req.Header.Add("X-Api-Key", "<api-key>")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Delete.new(url)
request["X-Api-Key"] = '<api-key>'

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

{
  "id": "char_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2NABCDEFGHJKMR",
  "object": "character",
  "deleted": true
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

DELETE

characters

{id}

Delete a character

curl --request DELETE \
  --url https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id} \
  --header 'X-Api-Key: <api-key>'

const options = {method: 'DELETE', headers: {'X-Api-Key': '<api-key>'}};

fetch('https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "DELETE",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "X-Api-Key: <api-key>"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}"

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("DELETE", url, nil)

	req.Header.Add("X-Api-Key", "<api-key>")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{id}")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Delete.new(url)
request["X-Api-Key"] = '<api-key>'

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

{
  "id": "char_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2NABCDEFGHJKMR",
  "object": "character",
  "deleted": true
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "balance_too_low",
    "message": "Team available balance is 1.5 credits, generation requires 2.0.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.aurous-labs.com/errors#balance_too_low",
    "request_id": "req_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM",
    "param": "prompt"
  }
}

DELETE /v1/characters/{id} removes a character. The branching is automatic, based on status:

reviewing → hard-delete (cancel-review). The 4 generated refs are discarded, the row is removed entirely. Subsequent retrieval returns 404. Use this when synthesis produced refs you don’t want to keep.
Any other status (ready, failed, synthesizing, deleted) → soft-delete. Sets deleted_at, transitions status to deleted. The row remains for ID stability (you can still GET /v1/characters/{id} for audit), but it is excluded from GET /v1/characters and rejected by POST /v1/images or POST /v1/videos.

This endpoint never charges credits and does not refund credits already spent on synthesis.

When to use

Cancel-review: the synthesize flow produced refs you reject; you want the character gone, not archived.
Soft-delete ready: retire a character you no longer plan to use. Past generations that already reference it on GET /v1/images/{id} are unaffected, but the character can no longer be attached to new requests.
Soft-delete failed: clean up a failed synthesis attempt you don’t want to retry. To retry instead, call POST /v1/characters/{id}/resynthesize — no delete needed. Only fall back to delete + recreate (with fresh upload_ids) if resynthesize returns 422 uploads_expired.

Examples

curl -X DELETE https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/char_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2VNABCDEFGHJKM \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $AUROUS_API_KEY"

const result = await fetch(
  `https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/${id}`,
  { method: "DELETE", headers: { "X-Api-Key": process.env.AUROUS_API_KEY! } },
).then((r) => r.json());

console.log(result.deleted); // true

import os, requests

r = requests.delete(
    f"https://api.aurous-labs.com/v1/characters/{character_id}",
    headers={"X-Api-Key": os.environ["AUROUS_API_KEY"]},
).json()

print(r["deleted"])  # True

Limits

Rate limit: bucket characters_post — 30 requests/min sustained, 60 burst per team.

Errors

Code	HTTP	When
`resource_not_found`	404	Unknown ID or cross-team. The 404 is intentional — cross-team existence is never leaked.

Common pitfalls

A reviewing character is hard-deleted — the row vanishes. Subsequent GET /v1/characters/{id} returns 404. If you cared about the refs, call POST /v1/characters/{id}/save first.
Soft-deleting a ready character does not affect generations you already produced — their output_urls continue to work and the character ID still appears on past GET /v1/images/{id} responses.
Calling DELETE a second time on the same character returns 404, since soft-deleted rows are filtered out for IDOR safety. Treat the first 200 as the only success signal you need.

Authorizations

X-Api-Key

string

header

required

Your team API key (starts with al_live_).

Headers

Aurous-Version

string

Optional API version pin (YYYY-MM-DD). Defaults to your team's pinned version, or the system default 2026-07-16 for unauthenticated requests.

Pattern: ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$

Example:

"2026-07-16"

Path Parameters

string

required

Opaque character ID

Example:

"char_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2NABCDEFGHJKMR"

Response

Character deleted

string

required

Character ID echoed back.

Example:

"char_01HXMQ7Z3K8Y2NABCDEFGHJKMR"

object

enum<string>

required

Discriminator

Available options:

character

Example:

"character"

deleted

boolean

required

Always true on a successful delete.

Example:

true

Get started

Guides

Concepts

API Reference

Resources

Delete a character

When to use

Examples

Limits

Errors

Common pitfalls

Authorizations

Headers

Path Parameters

Response

​When to use

​Examples

​Limits

​Errors

​Common pitfalls

Authorizations

Headers

Path Parameters

Response

When to use

Examples

Limits

Errors

Common pitfalls