Data retention
Set how long conversations and reasoning traces are kept, and hold one conversation back.
An Organization sets two retention windows in Settings, on the General tab. Both are off by default: nothing is deleted until an administrator selects a window.
The two windows
| Setting | What the nightly sweep does after the window |
|---|---|
| Reasoning trace retention | Removes the Thinking panel from old messages. The messages stay. |
| Conversation retention | Deletes the whole conversation, transcript included. |
The two windows are independent. An Organization can set either, both, or neither. For example, keep transcripts for one year but remove reasoning traces after 30 days.
A sweep runs once per night. It measures the window from the conversation's last message, not from its first. A conversation that is still in use is not deleted, however long ago it started. The sweep is permanent: a deleted conversation does not go to a trash area.
Conversation retention deletes data
After the window, the conversation is gone from the Inbox, from exports, and from Insights history. Export what you must keep before you shorten the window.
Set a window
- Open Settings.
- Stay on the General tab.
- Select a window under Reasoning trace retention or Conversation retention.
- Select Save changes.
Only a member who can manage members can change these settings.
Legal hold
A legal hold exempts one conversation from the conversation-retention sweep. Use it when a preservation obligation applies to one conversation, without turning retention off for every other conversation.
- Open Inbox and select the conversation.
- Open the details panel.
- Select Place legal hold in the Retention card.
The hold stays until a member selects Release legal hold. Every member sees the hold status. Only a member who can manage members can place or release a hold.
Self-hosted installations
The nightly sweep runs from the bundled scheduler. No extra configuration is needed. The sweep calls /api/cron/sweep-retention with the CRON_SECRET credential.