Deleting related data distributed across applications

Some embodiments provide a program that receives a selection of a data object relationship definition. The data object relationship definition specifies a plurality of data objects managed by a plurality of applications and a set of relationships between data objects in the plurality of data objects. The program sends each application in a first subset of the plurality of applications a request for instances of data objects in the plurality of data objects managed by the application. The program receives, from each application in the first subset of the plurality of applications, a list of a set of candidate instances of data objects. Based on the list of the sets of candidate instances of data objects, the program further determines a set of groups of instances of data objects. The program deletes a group of instances of data objects in the set of groups of instances of data objects.