# Audit Log Retention Policy Template (AI agents + regulated workflows)

Not legal advice. This is a policy template designed to be auditable: every clause should map to a
system behavior or exported record.

Version: v1.0  
Last updated: 2025-12-16  
Changelog:
- 2025-12-16 v1.0 Initial release

Report an issue: https://kla.digital/contact?subject=Template%20issue%20-%20Audit%20Log%20Retention%20Policy

## 0) Policy metadata

- Policy owner:
- Approvers:
- Effective date:
- Review cadence (e.g., annual):
- Systems in scope:
- Systems out of scope:

## 1) Purpose

Define how long audit logs are retained, how integrity is preserved, how access is controlled, and
how evidence is exported for auditors/regulators.

## 2) Definitions

- Audit log event: an append-only record of a security- or compliance-relevant action.
- Evidence pack: a verifiable export bundle containing logs + manifests + checksums.
- Legal hold: retention override preventing deletion for investigations/litigation.

## 3) What must be logged (minimum event taxonomy)

- [ ] Workflow execution start/stop, identifiers (trace ID, run ID)
- [ ] Decision points (including AI outputs used for decisions)
- [ ] Policy checkpoints (allow/deny/require-review + policy version)
- [ ] Human review actions (approve/reject/edit/override + rationale)
- [ ] Tool calls / side effects (e.g., writes to systems of record)
- [ ] Access to sensitive data (read/export) and administrative actions
- [ ] Configuration changes (model/prompt/policy/workflow version changes)

## 4) Retention schedule (default + exceptions)

Default retention (choose and justify):

- [ ] 7+ years for audit-grade decision logs (common in regulated contexts)
- [ ] ___ years for operational telemetry (non-audit)
- [ ] ___ years for derived analytics aggregates

Exceptions:

- [ ] Incidents: retain all related logs for ___ years from incident close
- [ ] Legal hold: retain until hold is released (no deletion permitted)
- [ ] Vendor/third-party systems: document retention alignment and export capability

Deletion:

- [ ] Deletion is approved by (roles)
- [ ] Deletion produces a signed deletion report (what, when, who approved)

## 5) Integrity & tamper evidence

Choose one (or more) integrity controls and document how verification is performed:

- [ ] Append-only storage (write-once or logically append-only)
- [ ] Hash chaining / ledger sealing (per-entry or per-batch)
- [ ] Periodic integrity verification (e.g., daily/weekly job) with reports retained
- [ ] External timestamping (optional)

## 6) Access control

- [ ] Who can view logs (roles)
- [ ] Who can export evidence packs (roles)
- [ ] Who can administer retention settings (roles)
- [ ] Break-glass procedure (conditions + approvals + logging)

## 7) Data minimization & sensitive data handling

- [ ] Redaction rules (what never appears in logs)
- [ ] Handling of identifiers, documents, and secrets
- [ ] Encryption at rest and in transit
- [ ] Segregation of duties (prevent unilateral tampering)

## 8) Exportability (auditor-ready)

Define what an auditor receives:

- [ ] Evidence pack contents (PDF/JSON/log bundle + manifest + checksums)
- [ ] Format guarantees (machine-verifiable manifest, stable schemas)
- [ ] Export SLA (time to produce)
- [ ] Verification instructions (how to verify integrity independently)

## 9) Evidence you keep (operational proof)

- [ ] Retention configuration snapshots + approvals
- [ ] Integrity verification reports
- [ ] Access logs for log-view/export actions
- [ ] Sample evidence pack export (sanitized) and verification result