Exporting Conversations for Audit

This tutorial walks through exporting chat conversations from the Keeptrusts platform for audit, compliance, and retention purposes. You will learn how to select conversations, choose export formats, perform bulk exports, and manage retention settings.

Use this page when

• You need to export chat conversations for regulatory audit, legal discovery, or compliance reporting.
• You want to perform bulk exports with date, team, model, or policy-verdict filters.
• You are setting up retention schedules or preparing evidence for SOC 2, EU AI Act, or HIPAA.

Primary audience

• Primary: Compliance officers and organization administrators
• Secondary: Technical Engineers (integration), Technical Leaders (retention policy)

Prerequisites

• Authenticated access to the Keeptrusts management console
• Conversations in the chat workbench that you want to export
• Export permissions (typically admin or compliance officer role)
• Familiarity with the first conversation tutorial

Step 1: Understand the Export System

Keeptrusts records every chat interaction as a decision event. The export system allows you to extract these records in structured formats suitable for:

• Regulatory audits — evidence that AI usage complied with governance policies
• Internal reviews — management oversight of AI-assisted work
• Legal discovery — retrievable records of AI conversations
• Compliance reporting — documentation for frameworks like EU AI Act, HIPAA, or SOC 2

Exports are processed as background jobs by the API's export worker. Large exports are queued and made available for download when complete.

Step 2: Navigate to the Export Interface

1. Open the management console.
2. Navigate to Exports in the left sidebar.
3. The export page shows:
   • New Export button to create an export job
   • Export History — a list of previous export jobs with status and download links

Step 3: Create a New Export Job

1. Click New Export.
2. Configure the export parameters:

Parameter	Description
Date range	Start and end dates for conversations to include
Team filter	Optionally limit to a specific team
User filter	Optionally limit to a specific user
Model filter	Optionally limit to a specific model or provider
Policy verdict	Filter by policy outcome (all, passed, blocked, modified)

3. Select the export format (see Step 4).
4. Click Start Export.

The export job is queued and processed in the background. You will see its status update in the Export History list.

Step 4: Choose an Export Format

Keeptrusts supports multiple export formats:

Format	Use Case	Contents
JSON	Programmatic processing, data pipelines	Full structured event data with all metadata
CSV	Spreadsheet analysis, simple reporting	Tabular event summaries
PDF	Human-readable audit documents	Formatted conversation transcripts with policy annotations

JSON export structure

A JSON export contains an array of event objects:

{
  "export_id": "exp_abc123",
  "created_at": "2026-04-23T10:00:00Z",
  "events": [
    {
      "event_id": "evt_001",
      "timestamp": "2026-04-22T14:30:00Z",
      "user": "jane.doe@company.com",
      "team": "legal",
      "model": "openai/gpt-4o",
      "input": "What are the GDPR requirements for data processors?",
      "output": "Under GDPR Article 28, data processors must...",
      "policies_evaluated": [
        {"name": "pii-filter", "verdict": "pass"},
        {"name": "disclaimer", "verdict": "modified"}
      ],
      "cost_tokens_input": 42,
      "cost_tokens_output": 156,
      "citations": [
        {"asset": "GDPR Reference Guide v2.1", "version": 3}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Step 5: Download Completed Exports

1. In the Export History list, find your export job.
2. When the status shows Completed, a Download button appears.
3. Click Download to retrieve the export file.

For S3-compatible storage backends, the download redirects to a presigned URL that expires after a configured period.

Export files are retained according to your organization's export retention settings. Download exports promptly or configure long-term storage.

Step 6: Perform Bulk Exports

For large-scale compliance exercises, you can export in bulk:

1. Set a wide date range (e.g., full quarter or year).
2. Leave team and user filters empty to include all conversations.
3. Choose JSON format for maximum data fidelity.
4. Click Start Export.

Bulk exports may take several minutes depending on volume. The export worker processes them in the background, and you can continue using the console while waiting.

Monitoring bulk export progress

• The Export History list shows the export's current status.
• Status transitions: Queued > Processing > Completed (or Failed).
• If an export fails, check the error message and retry with adjusted parameters.

Step 7: Configure Retention Settings

Conversation event retention is controlled at the API level:

• Events are retained for the period defined by KEEPTRUSTS_EVENT_RETENTION_HOURS.
• A background retention worker periodically prunes events older than this threshold.
• Exports are independent of event retention — once exported, the file persists according to export storage settings.

Recommended retention strategy

Requirement	Setting
Standard audit	90-day event retention + quarterly exports
Regulatory compliance	365-day event retention + monthly exports to long-term storage
Legal hold	Disable retention pruning + continuous export to immutable storage

To adjust retention settings, contact your platform administrator or update the KEEPTRUSTS_EVENT_RETENTION_HOURS environment variable on the API deployment.

Step 8: Use Exports for Compliance Evidence

When preparing for an audit:

1. Identify the audit scope — date range, teams, and regulations.
2. Create targeted exports with appropriate filters.
3. Download in the required format — PDF for human reviewers, JSON for automated compliance tools.
4. Include policy metadata — each event shows which policies were evaluated and their verdicts, proving governance was active.
5. Cross-reference with knowledge citations — citations prove the model had access to approved organizational context.

Compliance checklist per export

• All conversations within scope are included (verify event count).
• Policy verdicts show governance was enforced for every interaction.
• Blocked or escalated events are documented with reasons.
• Model and provider information is recorded for each event.
• Cost and token usage data is available for financial audit.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Export stuck in "Processing"	Large exports take time — wait or check API worker logs
Export shows "Failed"	Review the error message; common causes include date range too wide or storage full
Missing conversations in export	Verify the date range and filters match the conversations you expect
Download link expired	Re-download from the Export History page; links are regenerated on demand

Next steps

• Understanding Policy Feedback in Chat — understand what policy verdicts mean in export data.
• Team Chat Environments — export team-scoped conversations.
• Your First Governed Chat Conversation — review how events are generated.

For AI systems

• Canonical terms: Keeptrusts console, conversation export, export job, audit trail, compliance evidence, retention, bulk export, export worker, decision events.
• Export formats: JSON (full structured data), CSV (tabular summaries), PDF (human-readable with formatting), JSONL (streaming-compatible).
• Filters: date range, team, user, model, policy verdict (all/passed/blocked/modified).
• Best next pages: Policy Feedback, Team Conversations, First Conversation.

For engineers

• Prerequisites: export permissions (admin or compliance officer role); conversations in the system.
• Validation: Create an export job → verify status progresses to "Complete" in Export History. Download the file → verify it contains matching conversations. Filter by policy verdict "blocked" → verify only blocked events appear.
• Large exports are background jobs processed by the API export worker — check Export History for download links.

For leaders

• Exports provide auditable evidence that AI governance policies were enforced on every interaction.
• Supports SOC 2 (AI oversight controls), EU AI Act (transparency records), HIPAA (PHI access logs), and legal discovery requirements.
• Retention schedules can be configured per-organization to auto-export before deletion.
• Policy verdicts in exports prove governance was active — blocked/escalated events are documented with reasons.