Rekognition: Delete faces from the CLI

Part 1001 of AWS from Zero. This is lesson 19 in the Rekognition track.

What we are learning

Use delete-faces to remove, stop, release, or detach one Rekognition resource in a dependency-aware way. This lesson identifies the required input shape, saves the raw response, and keeps inspection separate from execution.

The AWS CLI operation is aws rekognition delete-faces. Required operation inputs: --collection-id (string), --face-ids (list). The modeled top-level response contains DeletedFaces, UnsuccessfulFaceDeletions.

Before you run it

aws sts get-caller-identity
REGION="${AWS_REGION:-ap-south-1}"
COLLECTION_ID="replace-with-collection-id"
aws rekognition delete-faces help

Use a sandbox account or an approved learning environment. Read the operation help before supplying identifiers, ARNs, network ranges, policy documents, or customer data.

Cost note: Images, video minutes, face metadata storage, and custom labels can incur charges.

The command

aws rekognition delete-faces \
  --generate-cli-skeleton input > part-1001-request.json
 
# Edit every placeholder in part-1001-request.json, then run:
aws rekognition delete-faces \
  --cli-input-json file://part-1001-request.json \
  --region "$REGION" \
  --output json > part-1001-response.json

The response is saved to part-1001-response.json so inspection is separate from execution. Review part-1001-request.json, replace every placeholder, and remove unsupported optional fields before the real call.

Inspect the result

node -e "const r=require('./part-1001-response.json'); console.log(Object.keys(r))"
node -e "const r=require('./part-1001-response.json'); console.log(JSON.stringify(r, null, 2))"

Compare the returned identifiers and status fields with the account, Region, and resource you intended to target. For asynchronous operations, continue with the service's matching get, list, or describe command until it reaches a terminal state.

One tiny variation

node -e "const r=require('./part-1001-response.json'); console.log(JSON.stringify(r["DeletedFaces"], null, 2))"

This variation changes output inspection rather than adding another infrastructure concept. Keep the raw JSON while developing a query so a narrow projection does not hide an error or unexpected field.

Common mistake

Deletion and stop operations can be irreversible or blocked by dependencies. Capture the resource identifier and current configuration before running the final command.

Cleanup

# This operation is read-only, operational, or needs resource-specific rollback.
# Re-read the command output before changing shared infrastructure.
rm -f part-1001-request.json part-1001-response.json part-1001-payload.bin part-1001-debug.log

Local request and response files may contain account IDs, ARNs, names, or service configuration. Remove them when the lab is complete and follow dependency-aware cleanup for any AWS resource you created.

Next, we will learn Rekognition: Compare faces from the CLI.

Official AWS CLI reference