Data Retention Policy Analyzer

Analyzer ID	Category	Severity	Time To Fix
data-retention-policy	✅ Reliability	Medium	15 minutes

What This Checks

Validates that data retention policies prevent unbounded growth. Checks for:

• Log channels using single driver (single file grows forever)
• Accumulating models without Prunable or MassPrunable trait
• Missing queue:prune-failed scheduling (failed_jobs table growing unbounded)
• Missing queue:prune-batches scheduling when Bus::batch() / Batchable is actively used
• Telescope installed without pruning scheduled
• Horizon installed without purging configured

Why It Matters

• Disk Exhaustion: Unbounded log files and database tables eventually fill the disk, causing outages
• Performance Degradation: Large tables slow queries, even with indexes
• Compliance: GDPR and other regulations require data retention limits
• Cost: Cloud storage and database costs grow with unchecked data accumulation

How to Fix

Quick Fix (5 minutes)

Switch from single to daily log driver with rotation:

// config/logging.php
'channels' => [
    'daily' => [
        'driver' => 'daily',
        'path' => storage_path('logs/laravel.log'),
        'level' => env('LOG_LEVEL', 'debug'),
        'days' => 14, // Keep 14 days of logs
    ],
],

Proper Fix (15 minutes)

1. Add Prunable trait to accumulating models:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Prunable;

class AuditLog extends Model
{
    use Prunable;

    public function prunable(): Builder
    {
        return static::where('created_at', '<=', now()->subDays(90));
    }
}

2. Schedule model pruning:

// routes/console.php (Laravel 11+)
Schedule::command('model:prune')->daily();

// Or in app/Console/Kernel.php (Laravel 10-)
$schedule->command('model:prune')->daily();

3. Schedule job cleanup:

Always schedule failed job pruning when you use queues:

Schedule::command('queue:prune-failed --hours=168')->daily();

If your application uses Laravel job batches (Bus::batch() / Batchable trait), also schedule batch pruning:

Schedule::command('queue:prune-batches --hours=168')->daily();

TIP

The job_batches table is created by Laravel's default scaffold migration even in apps that don't use batching. The analyzer only flags missing queue:prune-batches when it detects actual batch usage (Batchable trait on a job or a Bus::batch() call).

4. Schedule Telescope/Horizon cleanup:

Schedule::command('telescope:prune --hours=48')->daily();
Schedule::command('horizon:purge')->daily();

References

• Laravel Pruning Models
• Laravel Log Rotation
• Laravel Queue Pruning

Related Analyzers

• Alerting Configuration - Validates alerting mechanisms
• Telescope Security - Validates Telescope configuration
• Horizon Reliability Analyzer - Checks Horizon configuration