User's Guide

This guide is for Confluence users who want to understand how Content Retention Manager affects their content and how to use the app's end-user features.

Info

The features described in this guide are available to non-admin users in Standard edition only. In Lite edition, the app is only accessible to admins.

Accessing Content Retention Manager

In the Confluence left side navigation, select Apps, then select Content Retention Manager.

Opening Content Retention Manager from the Confluence Apps menu

What You Can Access

What you can do depends on the permissions your Confluence admin has configured:

• Content Byline and Panel: view retention status, applied policy, and classification level on individual pages you have access to, and change the classification level on pages you have edit access to (if the admin has enabled user classification permissions).
• Content Audit tab: view retention status and act on content you have access to, including classifying, archiving, and deleting.

Admins control which of these capabilities are available to regular users through the User Permissions sections on the Policies and Classification tabs.

Understanding Retention Status on Your Content

Every piece of content in Confluence has a retention status that reflects where it is in its lifecycle. See Retention Statuses and Discoverability for the full definitions.

The statuses most relevant to you as a user are:

• ENDING: Your content is approaching the end of its retention period. Review it and contact your admin if you believe it should be retained longer, or allow it to expire.
• ENDED: Your content has expired. Depending on your organization's automation settings, it may already be deleted or scheduled for purging. Contact your admin if you believe this content should be retained.
• EVERGREEN: An indefinite extension is applied. This content will not expire under any retention policy.

Content Byline and Panel

Confluence pages show a summary from Content Retention Manager directly in the page byline, next to the author, reading time, and reactions: the classification level, applied policy code, and retention status, separated by | (for example, Public | RET7Y-COMM | Retained). Click this summary to open the full panel, showing up to three cards side by side — Retention Status, Policy, and Classification — described below.

Retention status, policy, and classification summary in a page's byline

Retention Status

The Retention Status card shows the page's current status as a badge, with a short description of what it means. See Understanding Retention Status on Your Content above for what each status means for you.

Policy

The Policy card shows the applied policy code, a description of what it requires, and a source line explaining where it comes from (for example, a space rule, a per-content override, or the site default). This card only appears if your admin has enabled policy visibility for users, and is replaced by the Retention Status card alone when an extension (Extended or Evergreen) is active, since the extension supersedes whichever policy would otherwise apply.

Per-Content Classification

The Classification card shows the current classification level, a description, and a source line explaining how it was set (for example, a classification rule, a per-content override, or a user).

Changing the Classification Level

You can change the classification level from this panel on any page you have Edit permission on, provided your admin has enabled user classification permissions:

1. Use the dropdown in the Classification card to select a new level, or search for a level by name.
2. The selected level is saved immediately and overrides any space rule or global default for this page.

If you're not sure which level applies, click Ask Classification Agent below the dropdown to open Rovo chat with the Content Classification Agent for guidance. This button only appears when Rovo is enabled for your site.

Panel with Retention Status, Policy, and Classification cards, a Classification Level dropdown open, and the Ask Classification Agent button

Tip

Selecting Use inherited removes your per-content override and restores the effective classification from space rules and the global default. If Use inherited isn't available for your current level, or another level doesn't appear in the dropdown at all, your admin has restricted non-admin users from removing or assigning it.

AI Classification Suggestion

If your organization uses automated classification, the Classification card may show an AI-suggested level. The level name includes an (AI) label (for example, Restricted (AI)), and the card prompts you to confirm or override it.

Panel with Retention Status, Policy, and Classification cards, showing an AI-suggested level with Confirm and Reject options

• Confirm: saves the AI-suggested level as your own classification. The (AI) label is removed and the Classification Source updates to User.
• Reject: dismisses the prompt and shows the standard dropdown, letting you select a different level.

Content Audit

The Content Audit tab shows content where you are the creator, contributor, or owner, along with each item's retention status, classification level and source (if your admin has enabled classification visibility), and applied policy and its source (if your admin has enabled policy and policy-source visibility, independently of each other). The Relationships column shows which of these roles you have on that item.

Content you have access to but haven't interacted with won't appear in the Content Audit tab. Only content where you've taken an active role is listed here.

Use Filters and Search to narrow down to specific items, and Export to download the current view as a CSV.

Content Audit tab in Content Retention Manager for Confluence

Additional columns, such as Policy Source and Classification Source, are hidden by default, and some date columns can be switched between absolute and relative formats. Click Columns to choose which ones to display.

Column Settings dialog for the Content Audit tab

Classifying Content

Select one or more items and click Classify to set a classification level in bulk. This requires your admin to have enabled user classification permissions. Like the per-content panel, a bulk classification overrides any classification rule or global default for each selected item. Levels your admin has restricted from non-admin assignment won't appear as options.

Archiving and Deleting Content

Select one or more items to archive or delete them directly from the audit view.

• Archive: moves selected content to an archived state. Requires Confluence Premium or Enterprise.
• Delete: moves selected content to the trash. Content remains recoverable by space and Confluence administrators.

Each button opens a confirmation dialog listing the selected items before it proceeds.

Archive contents confirmation dialog

Delete contents confirmation dialog

About

As a non-admin user, your global page only shows the Content Audit and About tabs. The About tab provides a quick reference for your installed version and links to helpful resources. It displays the app name and version number. Use this version number when contacting support so the team can assist you more effectively.

About tab in Content Retention Manager for Confluence, as seen by a non-admin user

Under Resources, you'll find links to documentation hosted on this site:

• User Guide: This guide.
• How It Works: Overview of how Content Retention Manager works under the hood.
• Quick Start: Step-by-step guide to get up and running quickly.
• Release Notes: Changelog for all past and current releases.
• Glossary: Definitions of key terms used throughout the documentation.

Under Support, you'll find a link to the Opus Guard Support Portal where you can submit tickets or browse existing knowledge base articles.

Under Feedback, you'll find a link to rate Content Retention Manager on the Atlassian Marketplace.