Protecting instances of resources of a container orchestration platform from unintentional deletion

A container orchestration platform manages a plurality of instances of resources including a first custom resource and a second custom resource. An API server of the container orchestration platform receives a request to delete an instance of the second custom resource; determines whether instance data associated with the instance of the second custom resource has a backreference identifying an instance of the first custom resource, the backreference indicating the instance of the first custom resource is dependent on the instance of the second custom resource; and in response to determining that the instance data has the backreference to the instance of the first custom resource, bypasses deletion of the instance of the second custom resource.