# Retention

Retention controls how long job artifacts remain available.

## Retention modes

- `ephemeral` (default)
- `studio`

## `ephemeral`

Recommended for pure API workflows.

Expected behavior:

- Originals are not kept long-term after processing.
- Redacted outputs remain available for a short operational window.
- Use your own storage if long-term archiving is required.

## `studio`

Use when humans need to review or manually edit redactions in the web Studio.

Expected behavior:

- Originals, masks, and redacted assets are retained for review workflows.
- Suitable for hybrid API + human QA pipelines.

## Set retention on job creation

```bash
curl -sS -X POST "https://api.redactpdf.ai/v1/jobs" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F 'files=@/absolute/path/contract.pdf;type=application/pdf' \
  -F 'retention=studio'
```

## Data governance guidance

- Treat job outputs as sensitive data.
- Use `DELETE /v1/jobs/{job_id}` after downstream ingestion is complete.
- Define an internal retention policy per document class.