Podcast Lifecycle (Pause & Deletion)

This guide covers the complete lifecycle management system for podcasts: pausing, unpausing, and deleting podcasts, including their effects on RSS feeds, billing, and data retention.

Prerequisite

For billing sync details (Stripe integration), see Subscription Lifecycle Management. This guide focuses on the podcast-level state machine and its downstream effects.

Architecture Overview

Podcast Status State Machine

Status Definitions

Status	is_active	RSS Behavior	App Features	Billing
active	true	Serve feed normally	Full access	Active
paused	true	Serve feed normally	Frozen (read-only)	Paused (if last podcast)
pending_deletion	false	Redirect or grace period	No access	Canceled (if last podcast)

The is_active column is kept in sync via the sync_podcast_is_active() database trigger for backwards compatibility.

Database Schema

Migration: supabase/migrations/20260413111213_add_podcast_lifecycle_states.sql

New Enum Type

CREATE TYPE podcast_status AS ENUM ('active', 'paused', 'pending_deletion');

Columns Added to podcasts

Column	Type	Default	Purpose
status	podcast_status	'active'	Lifecycle state (source of truth)
paused_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	NULL	When the podcast was paused
pause_expires_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	NULL	When pause auto-expires (max 90 days)
last_pause_ended_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	NULL	When last pause ended (12-month cooldown)
deletion_requested_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	NULL	When owner requested deletion
deletion_redirect_url	TEXT	NULL	RSS redirect URL for subscriber migration
deletion_scheduled_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	NULL	When hard delete + R2 cleanup occurs

Constraints

Constraint	Rule
chk_pause_requires_timestamps	paused status requires paused_at and pause_expires_at
chk_deletion_requires_timestamps	pending_deletion requires deletion_requested_at and deletion_scheduled_at
chk_pause_max_90_days	pause_expires_at <= paused_at + 91 days
chk_deletion_redirect_max_90_days	deletion_scheduled_at <= deletion_requested_at + 91 days

Indexes

-- Lifecycle worker: find paused podcasts to auto-reactivate
CREATE INDEX idx_podcasts_pause_expires ON podcasts (pause_expires_at) WHERE status = 'paused';

-- Lifecycle worker: find pending_deletion podcasts to hard-delete
CREATE INDEX idx_podcasts_deletion_scheduled ON podcasts (deletion_scheduled_at) WHERE status = 'pending_deletion';

-- General status filtering
CREATE INDEX idx_podcasts_status ON podcasts (status);

Backwards Compatibility Trigger

-- Keeps is_active in sync: TRUE for active/paused, FALSE for pending_deletion
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION sync_podcast_is_active()
RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
BEGIN
  IF NEW.status IN ('active', 'paused') THEN
    NEW.is_active := TRUE;
  ELSE
    NEW.is_active := FALSE;
  END IF;
  RETURN NEW;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Pause Flow

Eligibility Rules

A podcast can be paused when all of these are true:

1. User is on a paid plan (starter or professional)
2. Podcast status is active
3. 12-month cooldown has elapsed since last_pause_ended_at

Pause Effects

• status → paused
• paused_at → now
• pause_expires_at → now + 90 days
• RSS feed continues serving (subscribers don't notice)
• App features are frozen (read-only)
• If this is the user's last active podcast: Stripe billing paused via pause_collection: { behavior: 'void' }

Unpause Effects

• status → active
• paused_at → NULL, pause_expires_at → NULL
• last_pause_ended_at → now (starts the 12-month cooldown)
• Stripe billing resumed (clears pause_collection)

Auto-Reactivation

The Lifecycle Manager Worker runs daily at 04:00 UTC and auto-reactivates any podcast where status = 'paused' and pause_expires_at <= NOW(). This also triggers billing resumption.

Deletion Flow

Deletion works differently based on hosting_type:

External Podcasts (hosting_type = 'external')

External podcasts have no RSS feed or R2 audio managed by show.fm, so they are hard-deleted immediately:

1. DELETE FROM podcasts WHERE id = $id (CASCADE handles all related tables)
2. Response: { status: 'deleted', immediate: true }

Self-Hosted Podcasts (hosting_type = 'podcasterplus')

Self-hosted podcasts have an RSS feed and R2 audio, so they go through a grace period:

Delete Confirmation

The UI requires the user to type the exact podcast name (case-insensitive) to confirm deletion. The API validates this:

const deleteSchema = z.object({
	confirm_name: z.string().min(1),
	redirect_url: z.string().url().optional().nullable(),
	redirect_days: z.number().int().min(0).max(90).optional().default(90)
});

What Gets Deleted (CASCADE)

When the podcast row is deleted, CASCADE removes:

Table	What's deleted
episodes	All episodes
episode_credits	All episode credits
episode_guests	All guest portal access
episode_people	All episode rosters
bookings	All bookings
booking_links	All booking links
automation_rules	All automation rules
automation_executions	All execution history
podcast_members	All team memberships
team_invitations	All pending invitations

R2 cleanup (best-effort): All objects under podcasts/{podcastId}/ are deleted.

What is NOT deleted: Guest user profiles (user_profiles) survive — guests can still be invited to other podcasts.

RSS Feed Behavior by Status

The RSS Feed Worker query now includes podcast lifecycle status:

WHERE slug = $slug
  AND hosting_type = 'podcasterplus'
  AND (
    (status IN ('active', 'paused') AND is_active = true)
    OR status = 'pending_deletion'
  )

Status	Redirect URL	Days Since Request	RSS Response
active	—	—	200 with feed
paused	—	—	200 with feed (unchanged)
pending_deletion	Set	0-7	200 with feed + <itunes:new-feed-url>
pending_deletion	Set	8+	301 redirect to URL
pending_deletion	Not set	Within window	200 with feed (grace period)
pending_deletion	—	Past deletion_scheduled_at	404
Hard deleted	—	—	404

Billing Sync

All billing sync functions are safe side effects: they try-catch internally, log failures, and never block the main operation.

Podcast Event	Condition	Stripe Action
Pause	Last active podcast for owner	pause_collection: { behavior: 'void' }
Unpause	Any podcast unpaused	Clear pause_collection
Delete (external)	Last active/paused podcast	cancel_at_period_end: true
Delete (self-hosted)	Last active/paused podcast	cancel_at_period_end: true
Auto-reactivation (cron)	Pause expired	Clear pause_collection

Exempt billing models: enterprise_manual, ltd, and enterprise tier users skip all Stripe sync.

Location: src/api/utils/stripe-sync.ts (app), workers/lifecycle-manager/src/index.ts (worker)

UI Flow (Settings Page)

Location: src/routes/(app)/p/[slug]/settings/+page.svelte

The settings page implements a multi-step state machine for the delete/pause journey:

idle
  ├→ pause-offer (if paid + active + eligible)
  │    └→ pause-confirm → [Execute Pause] → redirect home
  │
  └→ warning (delete path)
       └→ Step 1: What gets deleted
            └→ billing-warning (if last podcast on paid plan)
                 └→ redirect (self-hosted only: URL + duration slider 0-90 days)
                      └→ confirm (type podcast name)
                           └→ [Execute Delete] → redirect home

BillingWarning Component

Location: src/lib/components/subscription/BillingWarning.svelte

Shown when deleting/pausing the user's last active podcast on a paid plan. Warns about subscription cancellation or billing pause.

Key Files

File	Purpose
src/api/routes/podcast-lifecycle.ts	API: GET state, POST pause/unpause/delete
src/api/utils/stripe-sync.ts	Billing sync functions
src/routes/(app)/p/[slug]/settings/+page.svelte	UI: multi-step pause/delete journey
src/lib/components/subscription/BillingWarning.svelte	Billing impact warning
workers/lifecycle-manager/src/index.ts	Cron: auto-reactivate pauses, hard-delete
workers/rss-feed/src/index.ts	RSS: pending_deletion redirect logic
workers/rss-feed/src/db/client.ts	RSS: status-aware podcast query
supabase/migrations/20260413111213_add_podcast_lifecycle_states.sql	Schema: status enum, columns, constraints

Related Documentation

• Podcast Lifecycle API - Endpoint specifications
• Lifecycle Manager Worker - Cron worker documentation
• RSS Feed Worker - Feed generation and redirect behavior
• Subscription Lifecycle - Billing sync details
• Stripe Integration - Full Stripe service documentation