# Flows - How to delete records in database

**URL:** <https://community.appfarm.io/t/flows-how-to-delete-records-in-database/2484>\
**Category:** Ask the community\
**Created:** [October 27, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://community.appfarm.io/t/flows-how-to-delete-records-in-database/2484 "2026-10-27T20:19:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Preben](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.appfarm.io/preben/32/545_2.png) [@Preben](https://community.appfarm.io/u/Preben)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://community.appfarm.io/t/flows-how-to-delete-records-in-database/2484/1 "2026-10-27T20:19:17Z")

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Hi everyone,

I’m building a flow that needs to delete records directly from the database. The [Delete objects](https://docs.appfarm.io/library/action-nodes/delete-objects) documentation says the node permanently deletes objects from the database when the data source is database-connected, and only removes them from the data source when it is runtime-only. However, I can’t find a clear setting for this on action data sources in flows.

The [Action data sources](https://docs.appfarm.io/reference/actions/action-data-sources) documentation doesn’t describe this choice for flows. It only mentions that Persist objects writes to the database. When I look at the solution model, the data sources have a `local` property. Sources used to delete directly from the database have `local: false`, and sources that only read and count have `local: true`. I’m not sure whether this corresponds to a setting in the editor.

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/appfarm/original/2X/3/3c11366a2ae3333c6e7d7c87c7682b4ce6cfa8ab.png)

My questions:

1. Where do I set runtime-only versus database-connected for an action data source in a flow?
2. If that setting doesn’t exist for action data sources, what is the recommended way to delete records from the database in a flow?
3. Is Data connector available in flows, or only in apps and services?

Thanks for your help!

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**Author:** ![Eirik](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.appfarm.io/eirik/32/76_2.png) [@Eirik](https://community.appfarm.io/u/Eirik)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2026, 7:31am UTC](https://community.appfarm.io/t/flows-how-to-delete-records-in-database/2484/2 "2026-10-28T07:31:31Z")

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Hi Preben,

Great seing you in the Community again!

1. In Flows, all the data sources you add under Action Data Sources are runtime-only data sources. Database connected data sources do not exist in Flows.
2. (and 3) To delete objects in a Flow, you use a **Delete Objects** action node and instead of selecting the tab _Delete action data_, you select **Delete from database** and then the appropriate object class. This behaves exactly as data connectors in Services and Apps. The action node will then be postfixed with a “(connector)” indicating that it deletes database records.

We’ll see if we can the docs a bit more up-to-date.

Hope that helps!

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**Author:** ![Preben](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.appfarm.io/preben/32/545_2.png) [@Preben](https://community.appfarm.io/u/Preben)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2026, 7:57am UTC](https://community.appfarm.io/t/flows-how-to-delete-records-in-database/2484/3 "2026-10-28T07:57:43Z")

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Thanks , didn’t notice the secret button 🙂

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/appfarm/original/2X/5/56a1ab2213ba80b4ccf97207c4dc3b17954fbad2.png)