# Can system.tag.deleteTags delete an entire provider?

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-system-tag-deletetags-delete-an-entire-provider/116402>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, python, scripting\
**Created:** [July 14, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-system-tag-deletetags-delete-an-entire-provider/116402 "2026-07-14T16:36:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dbronish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/74df32/32.png) [@dbronish](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/dbronish)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-system-tag-deletetags-delete-an-entire-provider/116402/1 "2026-07-14T16:36:37Z")

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Some methods, such as "browse()" seem to treat providers as top-level folders:

`system.tag.browse() # Returns all my providers, e.g., [default] and [foo]`

However, when I try this, it does not work:

```python
system.tag.deleteTags(["[default]", "[foo]"]) # Does not delete them

```

They do _not_ get deleted.

Is this expected, and is there an alternative way to accomplish such a thing?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-system-tag-deletetags-delete-an-entire-provider/116402/2 "2026-07-14T16:42:36Z")

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Almost certainly not; tag providers are a unique top-level resource and would have go through a very specific code path.

In 8.3.8+ you can use `system.config.remove` from a script to remove any tag provider definitions.