Archive Policy

Some pages on this site are time-bound — security audit follow-ups, in-progress implementation plans, research notes that informed a now-shipped feature. Leaving them in the live navigation forever gives readers the wrong impression ("still open?"). This page defines how to retire them.

When to archive

Move a page out of the live nav when all of the following are true:

1. Every actionable item on the page has shipped (or has its own current tracking issue / change note).
2. The page is no longer the source of truth for anything that operators, researchers, or contributors need at runtime.
3. At least one current page explains "where the design landed" and links to the archived page for history.

Pages on the watch-list as of 2026-05-22:

Page	Trigger to archive
Security Audit Follow-up (2026-05-22)	All items #1 / #2 / #4 / #8 / #15 / #16 / #19 closed or moved to GitHub issues.
Web BLAST Compatibility Plan	All "In progress" checkboxes completed and the contract moves into a durable Architecture page.

How to archive

1. Move the file: git mv docs/<path>/<file>.md docs/_archive/<YYYY>-<short-name>.md.
2. Add a status: archived field to the frontmatter; keep title, description, and tags.
3. Add a one-line callout at the top: > Archived YYYY-MM-DD. Current page: [<title>](../<current-path>).
4. Remove the entry from mkdocs.yml nav.
5. Add a redirect in mkdocs.yml:

   - redirects:
       redirect_maps:
         <old/path>.md: _archive/YYYY-<short-name>.md
   

6. Update any internal links that pointed at the old path.
7. The archive folder is excluded from the frontmatter guard's tag canon by default; the guard still requires title + description.

What does not belong in _archive/

• Per-feature change notes under docs/features_change/ — those are already indexed by month/category in the Change Log and stay searchable forever.
• The legacy Azure Functions code tree — it was deleted from the repository on 2026-05-19, not archived. See Container Apps Architecture for the migration history.