This epic is intended to collect information and our approach for addressing the concerns raised in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342239. # Problem statement Currently it is too easy for users to accidentally delete a project, believing they are deleting another (similar) project, as evidenced by [this issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/production/-/issues/5642) where a customer copy & pasted their project name into the delete form without realizing what they were doing. When they realize this is an accident, it requires that they engage support and infrastructure, which is time consuming and difficult. We have a product feature today, [delayed project deletion](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/index.html#enable-delayed-project-removal), which could help with this in some cases, but this is ~"GitLab Premium" and up right now, so Free users can't leverage it. Premium users may also opt to immediately delete the project, even if it is on delayed deletion, so would still run into issues. # Proposals There are multiple ways we could address this problem. Each is detailed below. ## Make it clearer which project is being deleted (frontend) - [x] [Add indicators of the project's significance/value](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342640). A fork is generally not going to have nearly as much activity as the original project. - [x] [Require the user to confirm the entire project path (including namespace)](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/343591). A fork has a different path than the original project. - ~~[Make it less easy to blindly copy/paste the deletion string](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342721). Users should be prompted to analyze the path.~~ - Decided not to pursue this due to it having a negative impact on team member & customer workflows ## Reduce the impact from accidental deletion by being able to more easily recover the data (backend) - [x] [Accidental project deletion protection for GitLab.com](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/343577). Ensure that delayed project deletion is enabled by default for all projects that are applicable. Allow users to opt-out, rather than require them to opt-in. - There is [previous work](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/255449) on this. It is already this way Premium+ users. ### Also considered, but ruled out - ~~[Move "delayed project deletion" to free for accidental deletions](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342239). Per our [downtier process](https://about.gitlab.com/company/pricing/#changing-tiers-and-pricing-changes), this is being tracked in [a Product downtiering issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/Product/-/issues/3207#note_698072380). We recently [made delayed deletion the default when delay is available](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/255449), and we want it to continue being the default.~~ - ~~[Copying Project data and caching externally](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/343577#note_727217327). Not viable because Export feature should not be used.~~