From cf4f4e54967db819ed9457da89cd5c41041f39de Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: drawliin <itshoussameddine@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2026 10:36:53 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix: preserve array items when deleting named properties

---
 lib/utils/queryable.js      |  2 +-
 test/lib/commands/pkg.js    |  4 ++++
 test/lib/utils/queryable.js | 10 ++++++++++
 3 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/lib/utils/queryable.js b/lib/utils/queryable.js
index fac7581e6f852..c20b3b849317c 100644
--- a/lib/utils/queryable.js
+++ b/lib/utils/queryable.js
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ const setter = ({ data, key, value, force }) => {
     } else {
       // handles special deletion cases for obj props / array items
       if (value === _delete) {
-        if (Array.isArray(_data)) {
+        if (Array.isArray(_data) && typeof _key === 'number') {
           _data.splice(_key, 1)
         } else {
           delete _data[_key]
diff --git a/test/lib/commands/pkg.js b/test/lib/commands/pkg.js
index 50288cc42366b..f26b5a4c480e2 100644
--- a/test/lib/commands/pkg.js
+++ b/test/lib/commands/pkg.js
@@ -494,6 +494,10 @@ t.test('delete', t => {
         }),
       },
     })
+    const before = readPackageJson(npm.prefix)
+    await npm.exec('pkg', ['delete', 'info.foo.bar.missing'])
+    t.strictSame(readPackageJson(npm.prefix), before,
+      'should leave array items unchanged when deleting a missing property')
     await npm.exec('pkg', ['delete', 'info.foo.bar[0].baz'])
     t.matchSnapshot(
       readPackageJson(npm.prefix),
diff --git a/test/lib/utils/queryable.js b/test/lib/utils/queryable.js
index 5eca84214cd65..36810dfa70f71 100644
--- a/test/lib/utils/queryable.js
+++ b/test/lib/utils/queryable.js
@@ -919,6 +919,16 @@ t.test('delete values', async t => {
     },
     'should delete array item'
   )
+
+  const arrays = {
+    keywords: ['alpha', 'beta'],
+    contributors: [{ name: 'alice' }, { name: 'bob' }],
+  }
+  const qq = new Queryable(structuredClone(arrays))
+  for (const key of ['keywords.missing', 'keywords.beta', 'contributors.missing']) {
+    qq.delete(key)
+    t.strictSame(qq.toJSON(), arrays, `should leave arrays unchanged when deleting ${key}`)
+  }
 })
 
 t.test('logger', async t => {