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

Retention Policy: User Interface

The retention policy management interface is located at Dashboard → Compliance → Retention Policies. It provides a comprehensive view of all configured policies and tools for creating, editing, deleting, and simulating retention rules.

Policy Table

The main page displays a table of all retention policies with the following columns:

• Name: The policy name and its UUID displayed underneath for reference.
• Priority: The numeric priority value. Lower values indicate higher priority.
• Retention Period: The number of days emails matching this policy are retained before expiry.
• Ingestion Scope: Shows which ingestion sources the policy is restricted to. Displays "All ingestion sources" when the policy has no scope restriction, or individual source name badges when scoped.
• Conditions: A summary of the rule group. Displays "No conditions (matches all emails)" for policies without conditions, or "N rule(s) (AND/OR)" for policies with conditions.
• Status: A badge indicating whether the policy is Active or Inactive.
• Actions: Edit and Delete buttons for each policy.

The table is sorted by policy priority by default.

Creating a Policy

Click the "Create Policy" button above the table to open the creation dialog. The form contains the following sections:

Basic Information

• Policy Name: A unique, descriptive name for the policy.
• Description: An optional detailed description of the policy's purpose.
• Priority: A positive integer determining evaluation order (lower = higher priority).
• Retention Period (Days): The number of days to retain matching emails.

Ingestion Scope

This section controls which ingestion sources the policy applies to:

• "All ingestion sources" toggle: When enabled, the policy applies to emails from all ingestion sources. This is the default.
• Per-source checkboxes: When the "all" toggle is disabled, individual ingestion sources can be selected. Each source displays its name and provider type as a badge.

Condition Rules

Conditions define which emails the policy targets. If no conditions are added, the policy matches all emails (within its ingestion scope).

• Logical Operator: Choose AND (all rules must match) or OR (any rule must match).
• Add Rule: Each rule consists of:
  • Field: The email metadata field to evaluate (sender, recipient, subject, or attachment_type).
  • Operator: The comparison operator (see Supported Operators below).
  • Value: The string value to compare against.
• Remove Rule: Each rule has a remove button to delete it from the group.

Supported Operators

Operator	Display Name	Description
equals	Equals	Exact case-insensitive match.
not_equals	Not Equals	Inverse of equals.
contains	Contains	Case-insensitive substring match.
not_contains	Not Contains	Inverse of contains.
starts_with	Starts With	Case-insensitive prefix match.
ends_with	Ends With	Case-insensitive suffix match.
domain_match	Domain Match	Matches when an email address ends with @<value>.
regex_match	Regex Match	ECMAScript regular expression (case-insensitive, max 200 chars).

Policy Status

• Enable Policy toggle: Controls whether the policy is active immediately upon creation.

Editing a Policy

Click the Edit button (pencil icon) on any policy row to open the edit dialog. The form is pre-populated with the policy's current values. All fields can be modified, and the same validation rules apply as during creation.

Deleting a Policy

Click the Delete button (trash icon) on any policy row. A confirmation dialog appears to prevent accidental deletion. Deleting a policy is irreversible. Once deleted, the policy no longer affects the lifecycle worker's evaluation of emails.

Policy Simulator

The "Simulate Policy" button opens a simulation tool that evaluates hypothetical email metadata against all active policies without making any changes.

Simulator Input Fields

• Sender Email: The sender address to evaluate (e.g., cfo@finance.acme.com).
• Recipients: A comma-separated list of recipient email addresses.
• Subject: The email subject line.
• Attachment Types: A comma-separated list of file extensions (e.g., .pdf, .xlsx).
• Ingestion Source: An optional dropdown to select a specific ingestion source for scope-aware evaluation. Defaults to "All sources".

Simulator Results

After submission, the simulator displays:

• Applied Retention Period: The longest retention period from all matching policies, displayed in days.
• Action on Expiry: The action that would be taken when the retention period expires (currently always "Permanent Deletion").
• Matching Policies: A list of all policy IDs (with their names) that matched the provided metadata. If no policies match, a message indicates that no matching policies were found.

The simulator is a safe, read-only tool intended for testing and verifying policy configurations before they affect live data.