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Delete Workbook

Deletes a workbook from the current Tableau Cloud site as the destructive step of the Stale Content Cleanup workflow.

This tool is admin-only and is registered only when the ADMIN_TOOLS_ENABLED feature flag is enabled. Non-administrator callers are rejected before any action is taken.

The tool is two-phase to keep the destructive action safe:

  1. Preview (default — confirm omitted or false): tags the workbook with pending-deletion (reversible, visible in the Tableau UI; label configurable via the tag argument), reports the workbook name, project, and owner, returns a confirmationToken, and does not delete anything.
  2. Delete (confirm: true + confirmationToken): permanently removes the workbook. The token from the preview step is required — deletion is rejected without a matching token, which forces a deliberate two-step delete rather than a blind one-shot call. On Tableau Cloud the workbook is moved to the recycle bin and can be restored for a limited time before permanent removal.

:::warning Human confirmation required Between the preview and the delete, the calling agent is instructed (via the tool description and the preview response) to surface the workbook identity to the user and obtain explicit approval before deleting. The confirmationToken enforces that a preview ran, but the human approval step is a prompt-level expectation — agents must not auto-confirm or compute the token themselves. :::

Tool scoping​

This tool honors the same tool-scoping rules as the read tools (for example Get Workbook). If the server is configured with a bounded context (such as INCLUDE_WORKBOOK_IDS, INCLUDE_PROJECT_IDS, or INCLUDE_TAGS), a workbook that falls outside that scope cannot be previewed or deleted — the request is rejected before any tag or delete, so there are no side effects. Being an administrator does not bypass tool scoping.

APIs called​

Required arguments​

workbookId​

The LUID of the workbook to delete, potentially retrieved by the List Workbooks tool.

Example: 222ea993-9391-4910-a167-56b3d19b4e3b

Optional arguments​

confirm​

When omitted or false, runs the non-destructive preview (tags and reports). When true, permanently deletes the workbook (also requires confirmationToken).

Example: true

confirmationToken​

Required when confirm is true. The confirmationToken value returned by the preview step for this workbook. Deletion is rejected without a matching token, which forces a deliberate two-step delete rather than a blind single call.

The token is a deterministic sha256(siteId:workbookId) value, so it enforces an explicit second call but does not prove the preview/tag step actually ran (a caller who knows the workbook LUID can compute it). Guaranteeing a preview happened would require server-side state.

Example: 3a7f9c2e1b04

tag​

The label applied to the workbook during the preview phase to mark it as pending deletion. Reversible and visible in the Tableau UI. Defaults to pending-deletion; callers (for example a stale-content cleanup workflow) can override it with their own vocabulary.

Example: stale-pending-deletion

Side effects​

  • Preview adds the pending-deletion tag (pending-deletion by default, or the tag value) to the workbook. This is reversible and visible in the Tableau UI.
  • Delete removes the workbook. On Tableau Cloud the workbook is moved to the recycle bin and can be restored for a limited time before it is permanently purged. Always run the preview first and confirm the workbook identity before deleting.