> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cake.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Archive sessions

> Archive sessions you no longer need to free up cluster resources while preserving the session record and message history.

Archiving ends a session and releases its pod and persistent volume, but keeps the session record and its message history so you can find it later. Use archiving as the default cleanup path — reserve permanent deletion for sessions whose data must be removed.

## When to archive

* You're done with a session and want to reclaim its cluster resources.
* You want to tidy up your sidebar without losing the record of what happened.
* You'll never restart the session, but you may still want to reference the conversation.

If the session data must be permanently removed (for example, to satisfy a data retention policy), an admin can delete it instead.

## Who can archive

* **You** can archive any session you own.
* **Admins** can archive or delete any session in the organization.

Deleting a session is restricted to admins.

## Archive a session

1. In the sidebar, hover the session and open its menu (the three-dot icon).
2. Select **Archive**.
3. Confirm the action.

The session moves to the **Archived** status. Its pod is stopped, its persistent volume is packaged into a compressed archive and uploaded to your organization's S3 bucket (when [S3 storage](/admin/aws-storage) is configured), and its messages are retained in the database.

## Automatic archiving

Admins can configure Cake Agents to automatically archive sessions that have been idle for a set number of days. This keeps the sidebar tidy without anyone having to remember to clean up.

* The sweep runs on a daily schedule.
* Only sessions that have been inactive longer than the configured threshold are archived.
* Starred sessions are always skipped.
* Sessions already archived or deleted are skipped.

### Configure auto-archiving

<Note>This is an organization-wide setting. Only admins can change it.</Note>

1. Go to **Settings → Organization → General**.
2. Toggle **Automatically archive inactive sessions** on.
3. Set **Archive sessions after** to the number of days of inactivity to allow (1–365).
4. Optionally, select **Archive now** to run the rule immediately instead of waiting for the daily sweep. You'll be asked to confirm before anything is archived.

Turning the switch off (or setting the value to `0`) disables auto-archiving.

### Protect a session from auto-archiving

Star a session to exclude it from automatic archiving. Starred sessions are never touched by the sweep, no matter how long they've been idle. Unstar the session when you're done, and it becomes eligible again on the next sweep.

## Find archived sessions

Use the sidebar filter to show archived sessions:

1. Select the filter icon at the top of the session list.
2. Under **By Status**, select **Archived**.

You can also filter by **Live**, **Inactive**, or **All** to focus on active work.

## What archiving preserves

| Data                      | Archived       | Deleted  |
| ------------------------- | -------------- | -------- |
| Session record            | Kept           | Removed  |
| Message history           | Kept           | Removed  |
| Session data (files, git) | Archived to S3 | Removed  |
| Pod and persistent volume | Released       | Released |

Restoring an archived session and viewing archived messages inline are not yet available.

## Storage requirements

Archived session data is uploaded to S3-compatible object storage. If your deployment doesn't have S3 configured, archiving still ends the session and keeps the message history, but the session's files won't be preserved. See [S3 storage](/admin/aws-storage) to configure a bucket.