FEAT: Add remove_seeds_from_memory_async to memory

[blahdeblahde]

Description

PyRIT memory can add seed prompt datasets (via add_seed_datasets_to_memory_async / add_seeds_to_memory_async) and query them with get_seeds, but there is no counterpart for removing seeds. Today users have to drop into raw SQL, which is error-prone and differs across the supported backends (SQLite, Azure SQL).

This PR adds two removal methods that accept the same filtering parameters as get_seeds (dataset_name, dataset_name_pattern, added_by, harm_categories, authors, groups, source, value_sha256, data_types, seed_type, parameters, metadata, prompt_group_ids), plus an exact flag that controls how value is matched:

• remove_seeds_from_memory — removes the individual seeds that match the filters and returns the count removed.
• remove_seed_groups_from_memory — removes entire seed groups: any match is expanded to its whole prompt_group_id so partial groups are never left behind (e.g. filtering by one modality removes the whole multimodal group).

Recommended workflow — preview, then delete with the same filters:

# See what matches before deleting
to_delete = memory.get_seeds(dataset_name="illegal")

# Remove them; returns the count deleted
removed = memory.remove_seeds_from_memory(dataset_name="illegal")

# Or remove whole groups (preserves group integrity)
removed_groups = memory.remove_seed_groups_from_memory(dataset_name="illegal")

Implementation

• Extracted the filter-building logic out of get_seeds into a shared private helper (_build_seed_filter_conditions) so query and removal build conditions from a single source and cannot drift.
• Both methods delete in a single transaction using the SQLAlchemy ORM (rollback on error), so they behave consistently across SQLite and Azure SQL.
• remove_seed_groups_from_memory expands matches to whole groups with a server-side subquery (prompt_group_id.in_(select(...))) rather than materializing the group IDs into Python and sending them back as an IN (...) list. This avoids exceeding the backend bound-parameter limit (e.g. Azure SQL) on broad filters. Seeds with a NULL prompt_group_id (e.g. added individually rather than as a group) are excluded and skipped — use remove_seeds_from_memory for those.
• The methods are synchronous, mirroring get_seeds: they perform only database work and never await I/O, so making them async would just wrap blocking calls in a coroutine and stall the event loop.

Safety

• At least one filter must be provided; a no-filter call raises ValueError to prevent accidentally wiping the entire seed database.
• Value matching is controlled by an exact flag. For deletion, matching by substring is a footgun (a short/common value can over-match), so the remove methods default to exact=True (full-string equality). get_seeds keeps its substring behavior, so its helper default stays exact=False; pass exact=False to the remove methods to opt into substring deletion when you really want it. This intentional difference is documented in the docstrings and docs, along with the group-integrity consequences of deleting individual seeds.
• Only database records are removed. For file-backed seeds (image_path, audio_path, video_path) the serialized file on disk is left in place; this is documented so callers can delete those files separately if needed.

Tests and Documentation

Tests — tests/unit/memory/memory_interface/test_interface_remove_seeds.py covers, for remove_seeds_from_memory: every individual filter (dataset_name, dataset_name_pattern, added_by, source, harm_categories, authors, groups, parameters, metadata, data_types, seed_type, value_sha256, prompt_group_ids), exact-by-default matching vs opt-in exact=False substring, multi-filter narrowing, no-filter ValueError, zero-match, and rollback-on-error; and for remove_seed_groups_from_memory: whole-group removal, groups spanning datasets, non-matching groups preserved, ungrouped (NULL group id) matches skipped, no-filter ValueError, zero-match, and rollback-on-error. File-backed deletion semantics are documented rather than unit-tested (testing real serialized-file deletion is brittle); happy to add an explicit file-cleanup implementation + test if preferred.

Documentation — added a "Removing Seeds from the Database" section to doc/code/memory/8_seed_database.py (and the synced .ipynb) demonstrating the preview-then-remove workflow, whole-group removal, the exact-by-default matching (and exact=False opt-in for substring), the ungrouped-seed skip, and the file-backed caveat.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds first-class support for deleting seed prompts from PyRIT memory by introducing remove_seeds_from_memory_async, mirroring the existing get_seeds filter surface so users no longer need backend-specific SQL for seed cleanup.

Changes:

• Extracts seed filter construction into a shared private helper (_build_seed_filter_conditions) used by both seed querying and deletion.
• Adds remove_seeds_from_memory_async to delete matching SeedEntry rows transactionally and return the number removed (with a no-filter safety guard).
• Adds unit tests and documentation demonstrating a “preview via get_seeds, then delete via remove_seeds_from_memory_async” workflow.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 13 comments.

File	Description
pyrit/memory/memory_interface.py	Adds shared seed-filter builder and new async seed removal API implemented via SQLAlchemy.
tests/unit/memory/memory_interface/test_interface_remove_seeds.py	Adds unit coverage for common filter cases and safety behavior.
doc/code/memory/8_seed_database.py	Documents seed removal usage and recommended preview-then-delete workflow.
doc/code/memory/8_seed_database.ipynb	Syncs the same documentation updates into the notebook format.

[blahdeblahde]

Thanks for the review! Addressed all points in the latest push:

• Removed the @pytest.mark.asyncio decorators from the new tests (asyncio_mode = auto is set globally).
• Fixed the value_sha256 docstring type to Sequence[str] | None in the shared helper, get_seeds, and remove_seeds_from_memory_async.
• Corrected the get_seeds return docstring to Sequence[Seed] (not just SeedPrompt).
• Changed the delete to synchronize_session=False to avoid the extra SELECT on a short-lived session.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[blahdeblahde]

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree company="Microsoft"

[blahdeblahde]

hannahwestra25 Thanks again for the review — I've pushed updates addressing all your comments:

• DuckDB wording / helper return type — fixed.
• Async vs sync — converted remove_seeds_from_memory to synchronous (it only does DB work, no awaited I/O, so async would just stall the event loop); rationale in the thread above.
• Whole-group removal (Add poetry attributes #5) — added remove_seed_groups_from_memory, which expands any filter match to its full prompt_group_id so partial groups are never left behind. Unit tests included.
• value substring deletion danger (Upgrade transformers to >=4.36.0 to address dependabot alert #4) — documented the over-match risk with preview-first guidance, and proposed a safe exact-match deletion mode (value_exact=) as a separate follow-up ticket, since value matching lives in the shared filter helper used by get_seeds/get_seed_groups.
• Deletion footguns (Fixed broken link to notebook #7) — documented in the "Removing entire groups" section of the seed-database notebook.

The PR description has been updated with the new method and a "Follow-up work" section. Let me know if you'd like the exact-match mode folded into this PR instead of a follow-up.