ADR 0170: retire reviewed artifacts early
Date: 2026-09-05. Status: accepted.
Context
Section titled “Context”Repeated verification creates temporary workspaces even when agents need the
captures only until they inspect the result. The normal three-day window keeps
these files long after that review. release removes ownership protection but
does not shorten retention. The core supports minute durations, while the CLI
previously exposed only whole days.
Alternatives
Section titled “Alternatives”Automatically discarding passing checks could remove evidence before user review or a handoff. A global shorter default has the same problem for uncertain work. Agent guidance alone cannot express a duration the CLI does not support, and daily cleanup leaves expired files through long working sessions.
Decision
Section titled “Decision”Add artifacts discard with a required reason and a default 60-minute grace
period. It shortens the effective deadline and retention window, releases
ownership, and deletes nothing immediately. It never extends an earlier deadline,
including on retries. An expired artifact stays expired. Payload activity still
restarts the shortened rolling window; renew can rescue files before deletion.
Discard refuses holds, other live owners, tracked content, symlinks, and unreadable state. It uses the existing mutation lock and activity checkpoint. The manifest’s retention reason and release actor record the decision without adding a second expiration authority.
Expose mutually exclusive --minutes and --days on create and renew. Agent
instructions and command results recommend discard only after inspection when
no failure investigation, handoff, final evidence, or user review needs the files.
This prevents premature evidence loss: the command cannot infer future readers
from a passing verification result, so the reviewing agent supplies that judgment.
Session starts and new artifact or managed QA work share an hourly cleanup throttle. Serialize the throttle with the sweep so competing callers cannot consume an opportunity without checking the files. Keep the cleanup kill switch and all existing deletion guards. Closed event epochs retain their daily sweep. No background service runs when the project is idle.
Verification
Section titled “Verification”Regression tests cover grace periods, earlier deadlines, retries, already-expired files, payload edits, rescue, holds, other live owners, tracked paths, symlinks, invalid durations, CLI argument combinations, cleanup contention, and new QA work triggering cleanup. The three-day default and release semantics remain covered by the existing artifact suite.
This decision governs managed working artifacts. It does not retire user deliverables or change event-ledger retention and review-pack deadlines.