Evidence Retention

This reference defines how generated workspace evidence is classified before it is archived, indexed, or cleaned. It applies to generated files under workspaces\workspace\state and does not change source, docs, or release package retention.

Retention Tiers

Tier	Purpose	Default Handling
release-proof	Active release, RC, artifact, or release-blocking evidence.	Keep until superseded and recorded.
campaign-proof	Broad regression, certification, live E2E, and overnight evidence.	Keep recent runs; prune superseded payloads.
debug-profile	ETW, procdump, UMDH, pageheap, CPU spike, memory, and crash output.	Keep while active; preserve summaries.
nightly	Automated nightly build or test evidence.	Keep latest successful and failed runs per stream.
scratch	Local experiments, command logs, caches, and transient progress notes.	Disposable after conclusions are promoted.

State Directory Expectations

• state\test-reports and state\test-artifacts may contain both compact summaries and very heavy payloads. Heavy payloads should be indexed before cleanup.
• state\diagnostics is for active debug/profiling evidence. It should not be treated as long-term release proof unless a release audit explicitly cites a specific run.
• state\release, state\certification, and release-campaign summaries may hold release-proof or campaign-proof evidence. Cleanup must be more conservative there than in scratch/debug folders.
• state\preserved-evidence is the only generated state folder intended to outlive routine cleanup. Use it for selected representative payloads, not for full unbounded dump sets.
• Root-level progress Markdown files under state are scratch notes. They are disposable once any durable conclusion has moved into docs\active, docs\history, a GitHub issue, or a release audit.

Promotion Rule

Generated evidence becomes durable only when a maintained document names it and records why it matters. Otherwise, it remains cleanup-eligible generated state.

Cleanup Rule

Prefer targeted cleanup scopes over broad recursive deletion:

• routine cleanup for caches, path anomalies, and old lightweight payloads
• profiling cleanup for ETW, dump, UMDH, pageheap, and CPU spike output
• product-family output cleanup for node_modules, Rust target, and dist folders
• build-output cleanup for native build products and package staging

Before deleting large evidence sets, generate or refresh the heavy-evidence index so the decision is visible.