fix(core-flows): cascade custom links when deleting product variants

[brunoocal]

Summary

What

Deleting a variant through deleteProductVariantsWorkflow now cascades to custom records linked with ProductModule.linkable.productVariant and deleteCascade: true.

Closes #16732.

Why

The standard descriptor generates product_variant_id, but the workflow only passed the legacy variant_id to removeRemoteLinkStep. Variants and native price sets were deleted while custom linked records remained active. The issue includes a standalone reproduction using unmodified 2.20.1 packages.

How

Pass both variant_id and product_variant_id in the existing step call. Keeping the legacy key preserves native price and inventory links. The existing compensation receives both keys and restores both link types. No link schema changes or changes to the general Link service are needed.

Testing

Four integration cases use real Medusa services and a disposable PostgreSQL instance:

• Direct Link.delete and Link.restore work with the standard custom link.
• Native variant deletion removes the custom record and native price set, while preserving another variant and its linked records.
• A downstream failure restores the variant, custom record, native price set and both links. The test first verifies that the custom record was actually deleted before compensation.
• Inventory exclusively owned by the deleted variant is still deleted.

Before the fix: 2 passed, 2 failed. With the fix: 4 passed, exit code 0. Jest exited naturally without forceExit or retries. No internal modules are mocked.

The core-flows build, strict typechecking of the new test and fixture, and targeted ESLint checks passed. The complete monorepo test suite was not run.

With the monorepo dependencies built and DB_HOST=localhost, DB_PORT, DB_USERNAME and DB_PASSWORD configured for a disposable PostgreSQL instance:

cd integration-tests/modules
node ../../node_modules/jest/bin/jest.js --config ./jest.config.js --runInBand --runTestsByPath __tests__/link-modules/product-variant-cascade.spec.ts

Example

This existing standard link now cascades when the native variant-deletion workflow runs:

defineLink(ProductModule.linkable.productVariant, {
  linkable: BrandModule.linkable.brand,
  deleteCascade: true,
})

Checklist

• Added a patch changeset for @medusajs/core-flows.
• Added regression and compatibility tests.
• Verified behavior locally.
• Linked the related issue.

Additional context

This change covers individual variant deletion. Parent-product deletion uses another workflow and is not changed here. The tests exercise the workflow directly, not the HTTP endpoint or separate server/worker processes.

The test runner prints Connection Error: Connection ended unexpectedly both before and after the fix. These warnings were not suppressed, and all four patched tests complete with exit code 0.

Created with GPT-6 Astra in Codex.

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: b367b15

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 83 packages

Name	Type
@medusajs/core-flows	Patch
@medusajs/medusa	Patch
@medusajs/test-utils	Patch
integration-tests-http	Patch
@medusajs/loyalty-plugin	Patch
@medusajs/medusa-oas-cli	Patch
@medusajs/analytics	Patch
@medusajs/api-key	Patch
@medusajs/auth	Patch
@medusajs/caching	Patch
@medusajs/cart	Patch
@medusajs/currency	Patch
@medusajs/customer	Patch
@medusajs/file	Patch
@medusajs/fulfillment	Patch
@medusajs/index	Patch
@medusajs/inventory	Patch
@medusajs/link-modules	Patch
@medusajs/locking	Patch
@medusajs/notification	Patch
@medusajs/order	Patch
@medusajs/payment	Patch
@medusajs/pricing	Patch
@medusajs/product	Patch
@medusajs/promotion	Patch
@medusajs/rbac	Patch
@medusajs/region	Patch
@medusajs/sales-channel	Patch
@medusajs/search	Patch
@medusajs/settings	Patch
@medusajs/stock-location	Patch
@medusajs/store	Patch
@medusajs/tax	Patch
@medusajs/translation	Patch
@medusajs/user	Patch
@medusajs/workflow-engine-inmemory	Patch
@medusajs/workflow-engine-redis	Patch
@medusajs/search-postgres	Patch
@medusajs/draft-order	Patch
@medusajs/oas-github-ci	Patch
@medusajs/cache-inmemory	Patch
@medusajs/cache-redis	Patch
@medusajs/event-bus-local	Patch
@medusajs/event-bus-redis	Patch
@medusajs/analytics-local	Patch
@medusajs/analytics-posthog	Patch
@medusajs/auth-emailpass	Patch
@medusajs/auth-github	Patch
@medusajs/auth-google	Patch
@medusajs/auth-oidc	Patch
@medusajs/caching-redis	Patch
@medusajs/file-local	Patch
@medusajs/file-s3	Patch
@medusajs/fulfillment-manual	Patch
@medusajs/locking-postgres	Patch
@medusajs/locking-redis	Patch
@medusajs/notification-local	Patch
@medusajs/notification-sendgrid	Patch
@medusajs/payment-stripe	Patch
@medusajs/framework	Patch
@medusajs/instantsearch-adapter	Patch
@medusajs/js-sdk	Patch
@medusajs/modules-sdk	Patch
@medusajs/orchestration	Patch
@medusajs/query	Patch
@medusajs/types	Patch
@medusajs/utils	Patch
@medusajs/workflows-sdk	Patch
create-medusa-app	Patch
@medusajs/http-types-generator	Patch
@medusajs/cli	Patch
@medusajs/deps	Patch
@medusajs/eslint-plugin	Patch
@medusajs/telemetry	Patch
@medusajs/admin-bundler	Patch
@medusajs/admin-sdk	Patch
@medusajs/admin-shared	Patch
@medusajs/admin-vite-plugin	Patch
@medusajs/dashboard	Patch
@medusajs/icons	Patch
@medusajs/toolbox	Patch
@medusajs/ui-preset	Patch
@medusajs/ui	Patch

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[medusa-os-bot]

Thanks for the contribution! A few items need to be addressed before this can move forward:

The contributor targets a real, confirmed bug where deleteProductVariantsWorkflow only passed the legacy variant_id key to removeRemoteLinkStep, leaving custom links registered with ProductModule.linkable.productVariant (which generate a product_variant_id key) un-deleted. The fix passes both keys in a single call, which is correct given how removeRemoteLinkStep groups and forwards them to link.delete. The compensation path in removeRemoteLinkStep receives the full grouped object and so will restore both key types, which is also correct. The integration tests are comprehensive: they exercise direct link delete/restore, cascade deletion via the workflow (including the native price-set link), compensation after a downstream failure, and inventory-only deletion. Tests are placed in integration-tests/modules/ following existing patterns and use the pre-existing brand module fixture. PR template is complete, a patch changeset targeting @medusajs/core-flows is included, and the fix is narrowly scoped to the stated issue. The linked issue (#16732) carries the help-wanted label. One required change: the changeset message body does not follow Medusa's required format.

• .changeset/fix-variant-custom-link-cascade.md: The changeset message must start with fix(@medusajs/core-flows): followed by a short description. The current body is a plain sentence without the required prefix. Update it to, for example: fix(@medusajs/core-flows): cascade custom links on product-variant deletion.

Triggered by: new PR opened

[medusa-os-bot]

Thanks for the contribution! Initial automated review looks good.

The contributor fixes a real bug where deleteProductVariantsWorkflow only passed the legacy variant_id key to removeRemoteLinkStep, leaving custom links registered via ProductModule.linkable.productVariant (which generate a product_variant_id key) un-deleted on variant deletion. The fix adds product_variant_id alongside variant_id in the single removeRemoteLinkStep call; both keys are forwarded by the step and its compensation, so native links (price set, inventory) and descriptor-generated custom links are both handled correctly. The previously flagged changeset format issue has been resolved: the message now reads fix(@medusajs/core-flows): cascade custom links on product-variant deletion, which follows the required format. The four integration tests are comprehensive — they cover direct link delete/restore, cascade deletion via the workflow (including the native price-set link), compensation after a downstream step failure, and exclusive-inventory deletion. Tests are placed in integration-tests/modules/ following existing patterns and use the shared brand module fixture. The changeset targets @medusajs/core-flows as a patch, a linked and confirmed issue is present, and the diff is narrowly scoped to the stated problem.

Triggered by: new commit pushed