Cian Johnston
a876287d36
Adds a background job in `dbpurge` that periodically archives chats inactive beyond a configurable threshold. Each archived root chat gets a background audit entry tagged `chat_auto_archive`. Disabled by default. * New `AutoArchiveInactiveChats` SQL query with LATERAL last-activity subquery and partial index on archive candidates * `site_configs`-backed `auto_archive_days` setting with admin-only PUT, any-authenticated-user GET * Cascade archive via `root_chat_id`; pinned chats and active threads exempt * Root-only audit dispatch on detached context, matching manual archive (`patchChat`) behavior * 11 subtests covering disabled no-op, boundary, deleted messages, child activity, pinned exemption, multi-owner, idempotency, and batch pagination PR #24643 adds per-owner digest notifications. PR #24704 adds the requisite UI controls. > 🤖
3.8 KiB
Conversation Auto-Archive
Coder Agents automatically archives long-inactive conversations so they drop out of active chat lists without any user intervention. Archived conversations are still visible (and can be unarchived) until they age out of the separate retention window, at which point they are purged.
How it works
A background process runs approximately every 10 minutes. On each tick
it scans the chat database for root conversations whose most recent
non-deleted message is older than the configured auto-archive window
and flips them from "active" to "archived". Cascaded children (chats
linked into a larger conversation via root_chat_id) are archived
alongside their parent so the conversation stays coherent.
Activity is defined as the most recent non-deleted message in the
conversation family, counting messages from every role. Root chats
whose status indicates ongoing work (running, pending, paused,
or requires_action) are never selected for auto-archiving.
Children inherit their root's archival decision.
Pinned root conversations (those with a non-zero pin order) are never selected for auto-archiving. Children are archived alongside their root regardless of individual pin status. Admins and users who want to retain a conversation long after its last message should pin the root.
Interaction with retention
Auto-archive and deletion are two independent controls:
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-archive window | Moves inactive chats to the archived state | 0 days (disabled) |
| Retention window | Deletes chats that have been archived long enough and orphaned chat files | 30 days |
A conversation needs to be inactive for auto_archive_days, then
archived for retention_days, before it is deleted. The two windows
stack additively. With auto-archive disabled by default, inactive
chats are never auto-archived; once an admin opts in by setting a
non-zero auto_archive_days, a conversation lives for at least
auto_archive_days + retention_days from its last message before it
is permanently removed.
Auto-archive (like manual archive) resets the per-chat retention
clock, so the full retention_days runs from the tick that archived
the chat, not from its last message.
Setting either value to 0 disables that step. Setting
auto_archive_days to 0 means inactive chats are never
auto-archived (users still archive manually). Setting
retention_days to 0 means archived chats are kept indefinitely.
Configuration
The auto-archive window is stored as the
agents_chat_auto_archive_days key in the site_configs table.
The default is 0 (disabled); set to a positive number of days to
enable auto-archiving.
Use the admin API to read or update the value:
GET /api/experimental/chats/config/auto-archive-days
PUT /api/experimental/chats/config/auto-archive-days
Rollout advice
Auto-archive is disabled by default, so upgrading to a release that
includes this feature will not archive any existing chats until an
admin opts in. The first tick after enabling auto-archive on a
deployment with a long history will process up to 1,000 root chats
(and their children). If your deployment has a large backlog, the
initial rollout will span many ticks. This is intentional and avoids
stalling the rest of dbpurge during the first run. To disable,
set auto_archive_days back to 0.
Audit trail
Each auto-archived root chat produces an audit log entry with the
background subsystem tag chat_auto_archive. Cascaded children are
not audited individually. The audit entry records the chat ID, owner
ID, and organization ID, and the diff shows archived flipping from
false to true.