Logs kept exactly as long
as the rules say, and proven
Most teams have a written log retention policy and a logging setup that does not actually enforce it. Logs either pile up far past when they should be deleted, a liability if anything is ever subpoenaed. Or they expire too early, a gap if a compliance review asks for a record that no longer exists. We build an agent that enforces the real policy across every log source and keeps proof that it did.
Why a written policy and a real setup drift apart
Most teams have a written retention policy somewhere, a document stating that security logs are kept for a year, access logs for ninety days, application logs for thirty. The logging setup itself was configured once and has never been checked against that policy since. In practice, that usually means logs accumulate indefinitely because nobody set up automatic deletion. That creates liability: data kept far longer than policy requires can be subpoenaed, breached, or scrutinized in a way shorter retention would have avoided.
The cost runs the other way too. A retention window set too aggressively is one way this goes wrong. So is a log source quietly misconfigured to retain less than it should. Either can mean a compliance review, or an actual investigation, asks for a record that no longer exists. “We deleted it on schedule” is a much better answer than “we do not actually know what our retention setup does.”
And log sources themselves go quiet sometimes. A logging agent stops forwarding data. A service gets redeployed without its logging configuration carried over. That gap is invisible until someone specifically needs the missing data, at which point it is too late to recover.
How the agent enforces the policy you already wrote
The agent enforces your retention policy as an active, running process rather than a document. Each log type, security events, access logs, application logs, follows its own defined retention window. Logs get automatically and verifiably deleted once that window expires, with the deletion itself recorded as an auditable event. A legal hold works differently. Litigation, an investigation, or a regulatory request can trigger one. The specific log set in scope then gets frozen from deletion as a hard rule, until the hold is explicitly lifted by an authorized person.
The agent also watches for gaps. A log source that should be capturing data but has gone quiet. A required log type missing entirely from a newly deployed service. Both get flagged immediately, rather than discovered only when the missing data is actually needed.
A dated compliance report, generated on whatever cadence your audits require, documents exactly what was retained, for how long, and what was deleted and when. It is ready to hand over without reconstructing it under time pressure. Typical integrations: your log management platform, cloud-native logging services, or a self-hosted log aggregator, with alerts to Slack or email.
What stays a compliance decision
Setting the actual retention window per log type, based on the specific regulations that apply to your business and jurisdiction, is a legal or compliance decision. The agent never infers it on its own. Placing or lifting a legal hold is always a decision made by an authorized person, logged with who made the call and why. Deciding how to respond to a detected logging gap is a team decision informed by the alert. Whether it needs an immediate fix or can wait for the next deployment cycle is your call.
Guards
Every retention action is logged as its own event: deletion, hold, exception. Each one carries a timestamp and the policy rule that triggered it, building a complete, auditable history. Legal holds are enforced as a hard rule that automatic deletion cannot override under any circumstance. A kill switch pauses automatic deletion fleet-wide in an emergency, such as a newly discovered legal matter affecting multiple log types, without losing anything already retained.
Price and timeline
| Option | Price | What it covers | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single automation | from $800 | Core log sources, per-type retention enforcement, gap detection | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Department package | from $2,200 | Log retention compliance plus GDPR data request handling and access reviews | 2 to 4 weeks |
Running cost is usually $10 to $35 a month in model and log-platform API usage depending on log volume.
Related
This pairs well with GDPR data request handling, since both are part of the same regulatory data governance. Add access reviews and offboarding for the access-log side of the same audit trail. For the general compliance checklist side, see the existing compliance checklists automation. Full package details are on the AI agents service page and the automation-everything overview. For work where log and data handling discipline mattered directly, see the secure messenger case study and the visa center AI support bots case study.
Not sure your actual logging setup matches your written retention policy? Get in touch and we will check the gap.
Tired of doing this by hand? We can take the whole routine off your team, not only this step: Routine takeover, from $400 →
FAQ
How much does log retention compliance automation cost?
From $800 covering your core log sources, live in 1 to 2 weeks. A larger footprint across multiple systems and jurisdictions usually runs $1,500 to $2,500.
What happens if we need logs for an investigation that are past their retention window?
A legal hold exception freezes a specific log set from deletion the moment it is flagged. That is why gap detection and hold management are built in, rather than relying on someone remembering to pause deletion manually.
Does this decide what our retention policy should be?
No. Your legal or compliance team sets the retention window per log type, based on the regulations that apply to your business. The agent enforces whatever policy you define and flags where current practice does not match it.
What if a log source stops working and we do not notice?
The agent specifically watches for a log source going quiet, one of the most common and least noticed compliance gaps. It alerts immediately, rather than only discovering the gap when someone needs a log that was never captured.
Which log sources does this cover?
Application logs, access and authentication logs, security event logs, and infrastructure logs. Wherever they are stored: a log management platform, cloud-native logging, or a self-hosted log aggregator.