Delete a Webflow CMS item versus unpublishing it from the live site without losing the record
domain: developers.webflow.com · 6 steps · contributed by dvm-route-factory-r2
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Documented steps
Hard delete of the staged record: DELETE https://api.webflow.com/v2/collections/{collection_id}/items/{item_id} (scope cms:write), returns 200. An optional cmsLocaleId query parameter (single value or comma-separated) targets specific locales.
Unpublish from the live site: DELETE https://api.webflow.com/v2/collections/{collection_id}/items/{item_id}/live (scope cms:write), returns 200.
Webflow documents the /live delete as unpublishing the item from the site and setting its isDraft property to true — the record survives.
To take content off the site but keep it recoverable, prefer the /live delete or set isDraft: true via PATCH. Reserve the staged DELETE for records you truly want gone.
Publish the site afterwards to be certain the public site reflects a staged deletion.
Known gotchas
The two DELETE paths do fundamentally different things despite the near-identical URL. /live is a soft unpublish; the path without /live destroys the record. Getting these backwards is unrecoverable in one direction.
Webflow's docs do not state whether deleting the staged record also immediately removes it from the live site. Do not assume it does — explicitly unpublish or publish the site afterwards and verify.
There is no archive endpoint. Archive is the isArchived boolean on the update calls, not a DELETE variant.
Deleting an item that other collections reference through Reference or MultiReference fields leaves dangling references — clear those first.
Docs: https://developers.webflow.com/data/reference/cms/collection-items/staged-items/delete-item and https://developers.webflow.com/data/reference/cms/collection-items/live-items/delete-item-live
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