Preserve Relationships Through Deletion and Merge

Purpose

Removing or consolidating endpoints must account for the information connected to them. Relationship policies keep those operations consistent across record owners.

How It Works

The deleting service invokes endpoint policies within its transaction. Restrict can stop the operation, detach can remove a connection and cascade can remove dependent custom records. Any refusal rolls back the operation. A CRM merge instead redirects links and reference properties to the survivor. Collisions are resolved according to merge policy while history retains the earlier references. Planning reports the expected effects before application. These functions isolate the calling workspace and reserve execution to the authorized services.

Relationships

CRM owns its endpoint deletion and merge. Relationship storage supplies policy and custom-record storage supplies dependent cleanup and reference history.

Show evidence (sources, provenance, origins, pinned commits)

The Formal Contract

The narrative above explains; the sections below are authoritative — the rules, scenarios and tests this document binds.

Outcomes: Removing or consolidating endpoints must account for the information connected to them.Planning reports the expected effects before application.
Surfaces: jobapi
Intent sources: services-platform:docs/milestones/PLAT-M5-custom-records.md#CRM-M1 (owner delete), PLAT-M5 B5services-platform:docs/milestones/plans/PLAT-M6-plan.md#4. Assumptions A2, A3; 5. D4 (Andrew, 2026-10-21: move to survivor)services-platform:docs/milestones/PLAT-M6-custom-record-relationships.md#Changes requested (2026-10-21, "All or nothing")

Controls

23 controls apply, from the corpus control catalogue.

TC-AZ-001 TC-AZ-002 TC-AZ-003 TC-AZ-004 TC-DAT-001 TC-DAT-002 TC-DAT-003 TC-DAT-004 TC-LOG-002 TC-LOG-003 TC-LOG-004 TC-LOG-005 TC-PI-001 TC-PI-005 TC-PRV-001 TC-PRV-002 TC-TEN-001 TC-TEN-002 TC-TEN-003 TC-TEN-004 TC-VEN-001 TC-VEN-002 TC-VEN-003

Permissions

Key	Checked at	Scope
`rhythm_crm_app and rhythm_platform_app execution of the endpoint deletion and merge functions (no user key)`	database	tenant

Business Rules

10 rules, 10 to be proved before approval. A rule's product intent is derived from its origin: 10 confirmed by a product decision, the rest inheriting this capability's confirmed.

Id	Rule	Kind	Enforced at	Provenance
`01`must prove Confirmed	Endpoint deletion applies the configured side rule: detach removes links, cascade also deletes the opposite custom record, restrict refuses in-force links and ended links are removed regardless of policy. origin: services-platform:docs/milestones/plans/PLAT-M6-plan.md#4. Assumptions A1 (approved 2026-10-21) proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-017-09`, `ATS-PFM-MTD-018-13`, `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-01`, `TST-PFM-MTD-037`	policy	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/apply-endpoint-deletion.integration.spec.js#answers what endpointDeletionOutcome says for an open association on the to side under restrict
`02`must prove Confirmed	Cascades cannot delete contacts or organizations, stop at a depth of ten and roll back when the depth or a record lock prevents deletion. origin: services-platform:docs/milestones/plans/PLAT-M6-plan.md#4. Assumptions A2 proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-02`, `TST-PFM-MTD-037`	validation	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/apply-endpoint-deletion.integration.spec.js#refuses to delete a locked record in the cascade, naming it, and removes nothing
`03`must prove Confirmed	CRM endpoint deletion invokes relationship rules within its own transaction and reports restricting types while rolling back all resulting changes on refusal. origin: services-platform:docs/milestones/PLAT-M5-custom-records.md#CRM-M1 (owner delete), applied 2026-10-19 proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-03`, `TST-PFM-MTD-037`, `TST-PFM-MTD-133`	policy	database	test services-platform:tests/acceptance/custom-objects/deployed/associations/CO-ACC-0256.spec.js#step 3: Fulmar answers 404 and its associations are gone
`04`must prove Confirmed	CRM-originated cascades perform the same value cleanup, asset detachment, audit, history and event work as direct custom-record deletion. proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-013-10`, `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-04`, `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-10`, `TST-PFM-MTD-037`	invariant	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/apply-endpoint-deletion.integration.spec.js#leaves the same audit rows, events, revisions and no record, as the record store does
`05`must prove Confirmed	Deletion functions operate only within the transaction workspace and are executable only by the authorized CRM and Platform service roles. proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-05`, `TST-PFM-MTD-037`	permission	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/apply-endpoint-deletion.integration.spec.js#refuses another tenant than the transaction’s with 42501, removing nothing
`06`must prove Confirmed	Owner policies continue to apply when the owned object is draft or archived, including cascades and restricting links. origin: services-platform:docs/milestones/PLAT-M5-custom-records.md#PLAT-M5 B5 (Andrew, 2026-10-19: "Rule applies anyway") proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-06`, `TST-PFM-MTD-037`	policy	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/apply-endpoint-deletion.integration.spec.js#cascades to a record of an archived custom object, deleting it
`07`must prove Confirmed	Merging CRM duplicates moves current and ended links to the survivor, ends overlapping duplicate or self-links on the merge day and clears an additional primary flag. origin: services-platform:docs/milestones/plans/PLAT-M6-plan.md#4. Assumptions A3 proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-07`, `TST-PFM-MTD-025`, `TST-PFM-MTD-039`	policy	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/associations-merge.integration.spec.js#ends m’s association that repeats s’s, giving it s’s id, and leaves s’s as it was
`08`must prove Confirmed	Merge also redirects custom-record reference values from merged contacts or organizations to the survivor and captures prior values in history. origin: services-platform:docs/milestones/plans/PLAT-M6-plan.md#5. D4 (Andrew, 2026-10-21: "Move to survivor") proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-014-07`, `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-08`, `TST-PFM-MTD-053`	policy	database	test services-platform:modules/custom-objects/tests/integration/db/custom-object-records-merge.integration.spec.js#names the surviving contact in every property that named a merged one
`09`must prove Confirmed	Merge planning counts moved links, redirected references and endings, application follows those counts, repeat application moves nothing and per-record limits do not block a merge. proved by `ATS-PFM-MTD-019-09`, `TST-PFM-MTD-039`, `TST-PFM-MTD-053`	calculation	database	test services-platform:modules/associations/tests/integration/db/associations-merge.integration.spec.js#counts the associations held by m, and says how many end instead of moving
`10`must prove Confirmed	Workspace deletion clears relationships before their types, and reset empties both collections. no proof recorded yet	lifecycle	service	documented services-platform:docs/associations.md#8. Tenant lifecycle

Scenarios

Id	Given	When	Then	Provenance
`01`	Ola owns Fulmar under a cascading ownership policy.	Delete Ola through CRM.	Both endpoint and dependent boat disappear and no retained link names Ola.	test services-platform:tests/acceptance/custom-objects/deployed/associations/CO-ACC-0256.spec.js#step 5: no association names Ola any more

Edge Cases

Id	Given	When	Then	Provenance
`02`	Jane duplicate has crew ties and is a boat Previous Owner reference.	Merge the duplicate into Jane through CRM.	Crew links, boat ownership and the reference identify the survivor.	test react-console:acceptance/custom-objects/playwright/journeys/PLAT-M6-S11.spec.ts#PLAT-M6-S11: after CRM merges Jane's duplicate her crew places, her boats and Osprey's Previous Owner name the surviving Jane

Planning

Implementation

Preserve Relationships Through Deletion and Merge ​

Purpose ​

How It Works ​

Relationships ​