Remove Release Assets

Remove all files/artifacts/assets from a GitHub release.

Usage

Invoke this skill when you need to clear all assets from a release before uploading new ones.

Parameters

When invoking this skill, provide:

• repo: The repository (e.g., iNavFlight/inav or iNavFlight/inav-configurator)
• tag: The release tag (e.g., 9.0.0-RC2)

Procedure

1. Get asset IDs from the release:

gh api repos/{repo}/releases --jq '.[] | select(.tag_name=="{tag}") | .assets[].id' > /tmp/asset_ids.txt

2. Check how many assets exist:

wc -l /tmp/asset_ids.txt

3. Delete each asset via the GitHub API:

count=0
total=$(wc -l < /tmp/asset_ids.txt)
while IFS= read -r id; do
  ((count++))
  gh api -X DELETE "repos/{repo}/releases/assets/$id" 2>/dev/null && echo "Deleted $count/$total"
done < /tmp/asset_ids.txt
echo "Done"

4. Verify deletion:

gh release view {tag} --repo {repo} --json assets --jq '.assets | length'

Should return 0.

Notes

• The gh release delete-asset command does not exist in older versions of gh, so we use the API directly
• This works for both draft and published releases
• Assets are deleted immediately and cannot be recovered
• For large releases (100+ assets), this may take a few minutes

Example

To remove all assets from the INAV 9.0.0-RC2 draft release:

# Get asset IDs
gh api repos/iNavFlight/inav/releases --jq '.[] | select(.tag_name=="9.0.0-RC2") | .assets[].id' > /tmp/asset_ids.txt

# Delete all
while IFS= read -r id; do
  gh api -X DELETE "repos/iNavFlight/inav/releases/assets/$id"
done < /tmp/asset_ids.txt

# Verify
gh release view 9.0.0-RC2 --repo iNavFlight/inav --json assets --jq '.assets | length'

Related Skills

• upload-release-assets - Upload new assets after removal