Overview

There are three distinct compliance operations, all triggered by the same daily cron job:

Each operation runs independently, on its own cadence, and logs every execution to the Audit table for a permanent record.

Automated Backups

When enabled, the backup system exports a full JSON snapshot of your database tables to S3-compatible cloud storage (default: Cloudflare R2). Each backup is organized by date and optionally encrypted with AES-256-GCM.

How It Works

1. A Vercel cron job runs daily (configurable cadence).
2. Each configured table is exported as a JSON file.
3. If encryption is enabled, files are encrypted before upload.
4. A manifest.json is written alongside the table files with checksums and metadata.
5. Old backups past the retention window are automatically deleted from storage.

Storage Layout

backups/
  main/
    2026-03-01/
      manifest.json
      user.json.enc
      product.json.enc
      order.json.enc
      ...
    2026-03-02/
      ...

Configuration

PII Deletion

PII deletion automatically removes or anonymizes personal data from your live database after a configurable retention period. This is your data retention policy enforced in code.

Strategies

Default Rules

These are the pre-configured rules (all customizable in Site Config):

Audit Trail

Every significant system action is logged to the Audit table, creating a permanent, tamper-evident record of what happened, when, and by whom. Super admins can browse the full audit history in Admin > Audits.

Audit Event Types

What Gets Recorded

Each audit record captures:

• Type - The category of event (see table above).
• Status - completed, partial, failed, or success.
• Record count - How many records were affected.
• Details - JSON object with specifics (tables affected, errors, duration, etc.).
• Performed by - The user who triggered it (name, email, IP), or null for automated cron jobs.
• Timestamp - When the event occurred.
• Notes - Optional admin-editable notes for context.

Manual Controls

Super admins can manually trigger backup and PII deletion from Admin > Super Admin Tools > Compliance. Each task has two modes:

• Dry Run - Preview what would happen without modifying any data. Shows which tables and records would be affected.
• Live Run - Execute the operation for real. Results are logged to the audit trail.

How They Work Together

The daily cron job runs both operations in sequence:

1. Backup - Snapshot the current database state to cloud storage.
2. Backup cleanup - Delete expired backup files from storage.
3. PII deletion - Anonymize or delete old records in the live database.

This ordering is intentional: the backup captures the pre-deletion state, so you always have a recovery window. As long as your backup retention period is shorter than your PII retention period, deleted data won't linger in backup files past its deadline.

Getting Started

To enable compliance features for your deployment:

1. Set up S3-compatible storage (e.g., Cloudflare R2) and add the connection environment variables.
2. Generate an encryption key and add it as an environment variable.
3. In Admin > Site Config > Compliance, toggle backup and/or PII deletion on.
4. Use Dry Run from the Super Admin tools to verify configuration.
5. The automated cron job handles everything from there.

For full setup details including environment variables, encryption, and disaster recovery procedures, see the project README.