OpenArchiver/docs/enterprise/retention-policy/api.md

Retention Policy: API Endpoints

The retention policy feature exposes a RESTful API for managing retention policies and simulating policy evaluation against email metadata. All endpoints require authentication and the manage:all permission.

Base URL: /api/v1/enterprise/retention-policy

All endpoints also require the RETENTION_POLICY feature to be enabled in the enterprise license.

---

List All Policies

Retrieves all retention policies, ordered by priority ascending.

• Endpoint: GET /policies
• Method: GET
• Authentication: Required
• Permission: manage:all

Response Body

[
	{
		"id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
		"name": "Default 7-Year Retention",
		"description": "Retain all emails for 7 years per regulatory requirements.",
		"priority": 1,
		"conditions": null,
		"ingestionScope": null,
		"retentionPeriodDays": 2555,
		"isActive": true,
		"createdAt": "2025-10-01T00:00:00.000Z",
		"updatedAt": "2025-10-01T00:00:00.000Z"
	}
]

---

Get Policy by ID

Retrieves a single retention policy by its UUID.

• Endpoint: GET /policies/:id
• Method: GET
• Authentication: Required
• Permission: manage:all

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
id	uuid	The UUID of the policy to get.

Response Body

Returns a single policy object (same shape as the list endpoint), or 404 if not found.

---

Create Policy

Creates a new retention policy. The policy name must be unique across the system.

• Endpoint: POST /policies
• Method: POST
• Authentication: Required
• Permission: manage:all

Request Body

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Unique policy name. Max 255 characters.
description	string	No	Human-readable description. Max 1000 characters.
priority	integer	Yes	Positive integer. Lower values indicate higher priority.
retentionPeriodDays	integer	Yes	Number of days to retain matching emails. Minimum 1.
actionOnExpiry	string	Yes	Action to take when the retention period expires. Currently only "delete_permanently".
isEnabled	boolean	No	Whether the policy is active. Defaults to true.
conditions	RuleGroup | null	No	Condition rules for targeting specific emails. null matches all emails.
ingestionScope	string[] | null	No	Array of ingestion source UUIDs to scope the policy to. null applies to all sources.

Conditions (RuleGroup) Schema

{
	"logicalOperator": "AND",
	"rules": [
		{
			"field": "sender",
			"operator": "domain_match",
			"value": "example.com"
		},
		{
			"field": "subject",
			"operator": "contains",
			"value": "invoice"
		}
	]
}

Supported fields: sender, recipient, subject, attachment_type

Supported operators:

Operator	Description
equals	Exact case-insensitive match.
not_equals	Inverse of equals.
contains	Case-insensitive substring match.
not_contains	Inverse of contains.
starts_with	Case-insensitive prefix match.
ends_with	Case-insensitive suffix match.
domain_match	Matches when an email address ends with @<value>.
regex_match	ECMAScript regex (case-insensitive). Max pattern length: 200 chars.

Validation limits:

• Maximum 50 rules per group.
• Rule value must be between 1 and 500 characters.

Example Request

{
	"name": "Finance Department - 10 Year",
	"description": "Extended retention for finance-related correspondence.",
	"priority": 2,
	"retentionPeriodDays": 3650,
	"actionOnExpiry": "delete_permanently",
	"conditions": {
		"logicalOperator": "OR",
		"rules": [
			{
				"field": "sender",
				"operator": "domain_match",
				"value": "finance.acme.com"
			},
			{
				"field": "recipient",
				"operator": "domain_match",
				"value": "finance.acme.com"
			}
		]
	},
	"ingestionScope": ["b2c3d4e5-f6a7-8901-bcde-f23456789012"]
}

Response

• 201 Created — Returns the created policy object.
• 409 Conflict — A policy with this name already exists.
• 422 Unprocessable Entity — Validation errors.

---

Update Policy

Updates an existing retention policy. Only the fields included in the request body are modified.

• Endpoint: PUT /policies/:id
• Method: PUT
• Authentication: Required
• Permission: manage:all

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
id	uuid	The UUID of the policy to update.

Request Body

All fields from the create endpoint are accepted, and all are optional. Only provided fields are updated.

To clear conditions (make the policy match all emails), send "conditions": null.

To clear ingestion scope (make the policy apply to all sources), send "ingestionScope": null.

Response

• 200 OK — Returns the updated policy object.
• 404 Not Found — Policy with the given ID does not exist.
• 422 Unprocessable Entity — Validation errors.

---

Delete Policy

Permanently deletes a retention policy. This action is irreversible.

• Endpoint: DELETE /policies/:id
• Method: DELETE
• Authentication: Required
• Permission: manage:all

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
id	uuid	The UUID of the policy to delete.

Response

• 204 No Content — Policy successfully deleted.
• 404 Not Found — Policy with the given ID does not exist.

---

Evaluate Email (Policy Simulator)

Evaluates a set of email metadata against all active policies and returns the applicable retention period and matching policy IDs. This endpoint does not modify any data — it is a read-only simulation tool.

• Endpoint: POST /policies/evaluate
• Method: POST
• Authentication: Required
• Permission: manage:all

Request Body

Field	Type	Required	Description
emailMetadata.sender	string	Yes	Sender email address. Max 500 characters.
emailMetadata.recipients	string[]	Yes	Recipient email addresses. Max 500 entries.
emailMetadata.subject	string	Yes	Email subject line. Max 2000 characters.
emailMetadata.attachmentTypes	string[]	Yes	File extensions (e.g., [".pdf", ".xml"]). Max 100.
emailMetadata.ingestionSourceId	uuid	No	Optional ingestion source UUID for scope-aware evaluation.

Example Request

{
	"emailMetadata": {
		"sender": "cfo@finance.acme.com",
		"recipients": ["legal@acme.com"],
		"subject": "Q4 Invoice Reconciliation",
		"attachmentTypes": [".pdf", ".xlsx"],
		"ingestionSourceId": "b2c3d4e5-f6a7-8901-bcde-f23456789012"
	}
}

Response Body

{
	"appliedRetentionDays": 3650,
	"actionOnExpiry": "delete_permanently",
	"matchingPolicyIds": [
		"a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
		"c3d4e5f6-a7b8-9012-cdef-345678901234"
	]
}

Field	Type	Description
appliedRetentionDays	integer	The longest retention period from all matching policies. 0 means no policy matched.
actionOnExpiry	string	The action to take on expiry. Currently always "delete_permanently".
matchingPolicyIds	string[]	UUIDs of all policies that matched the provided metadata.

Response Codes

• 200 OK — Evaluation completed.
• 422 Unprocessable Entity — Validation errors in the request body.