Retention and automatic deletion
Admins decide after how many days Custodos deletes chats automatically. If they wish, the same period applies to documents in the Company Brain. Without a period, chats are kept until someone deletes them.
Last checked on 28 September 2026
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Setting a retention period
An empty field means chats are kept indefinitely. Members see the rule that applies in their account under How your data is handled here, for example Chats are kept until you delete them.
- 1
Open the settings
As an admin, click Settings and go to the Retention section. - 2
Enter the period
Under Delete conversations after, enter a number from 1 to 3650 days. 3650 days is roughly ten years. - 3
Save
The period is saved as soon as you leave the field or press Enter. The change is recorded in the activity log.
What is deleted with a chat
The period counts from the last activity in the chat, not from when it was created. A chat that is still in use is therefore not old. An automatic run deletes, once a day, every chat whose last activity lies further back than the period.
Along with the chat, Custodos deletes all messages, attached files with their extracted text, generated files and images, document editor content with its versions, ratings of replies and the mapping of pseudonymised values. The deletion is final.
If someone took over a shared chat with Copy and continue, the copy is a separate chat belonging to that person. For them, the period runs from their own last activity.
Including the Company Brain
Once a period is set, the switch Retention also applies to Company Brain appears. It stays off until an admin turns it on.
When it is on, Custodos deletes brain documents whose content has not changed for longer than the period, with their text passages and original file. A change means an upload, changed text found when a cloud import is re-checked, or an edit to the text. Mark as replaced does not reset the period. Adding the same content again restarts it. A replaced older version is deleted together with its newer one.
The brains themselves remain, with their name, sharing and instructions. Clearing the period also switches off deletion in the brain.
What the period does not cover
The retention period applies to chats and, if switched on, to brain documents. Everything else stays until someone deletes it or the workspace ends.
| Data | What applies |
|---|---|
| Prompts in the prompt library | kept until someone deletes them |
| Agents and their files | kept as long as the agent exists |
| Projects with their instructions | kept; the chats inside them are subject to the period |
| Brain documents without the brain option switched on | kept until someone deletes them |
| Custom rules, glossary and settings | kept as long as the workspace exists |
| Activity log | not affected by the period; it contains no chat content |
| Usage and billing data | kept; usage data holds the model and token counts, no content. Invoices are subject to the ten-year Swiss bookkeeping obligation (Art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations). |
Deleting it yourself
Members can delete their own chats at any time, one by one with Delete in the chat menu, see Chat basics. In their account, Delete all my chats in … deletes all of their own chats in that workspace at once; colleagues' chats are untouched.
What happens to the data after the contract ends is set out in the data processing agreement.
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