Keeping records is half of a defensible archive. The other half is being able to show how they were handled — who looked, who collected, who produced. That is the audit log.
What it records
Archive → Audit Log lists events with:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Time | When it happened |
| Event | What happened, as an event type such as record.tagged |
| Actor | The user who took the action |
| Entity | What it happened to — the archive or case by name, or a short reference such as record followed by the start of its ID |
| Details | The specifics of that event |
| Chain | The event's place in the linked sequence |
Actions across the archive are covered: tagging records, adding and removing case records, running exports, and administrative changes.
The chain
Audit events are linked to one another in sequence rather than kept as a loose list. That linkage is what makes the log itself tamper-evident: an event cannot be quietly removed or back-dated without breaking the chain. It is the same principle as the records themselves — evidence has to be able to show it has not been altered.
Finding an event
Four filters sit above the table: Event, Entity, Actor, and Date. Two do most of the work:
- Event — narrow to a kind of action, for example record.tagged. Pick it from the list, which is grouped by area.
- Entity — narrow to one object. Pick an archive or a case from the list. Records and exports cannot be listed, so paste their reference instead, as record: followed by the ID.
The usual question is "what happened to this case", and the entity filter answers it directly: pick the case and read the history of the matter from creation to export.
When you need it
- A records request is challenged. The log shows when records were collected and exported, and by whom.
- Reviewing internal handling. The log shows who accessed a sensitive matter.
- Producing a chain of custody. The audit log can itself be exported with Export ZIP — see Exporting records.
Note
The audit log covers actions taken inside CivAll Archive. It does not record what happened on the social network itself — that story is told by the records, which capture publication, edits, and deletions as they occurred.