# Account, export and deletion

Your account and preferences, exporting a workspace, deleting a workspace or your account, and how long Trash keeps things. Exact consequences included.

Your data is yours. You can take it with you, and you can make it disappear. Read the second half slowly: some of these buttons don't come with an undo.

## Before you start

- **Settings › Preferences** and **Settings › Account** are personal and open to everyone. **Preferences** is in the account menu (your name, bottom of the sidebar); **Account** sits beside it in the Personal group. Or type either into `⌘K` / `Ctrl+K`.
- Exporting a workspace needs an Admin or the Owner. Deleting a workspace needs the Owner.
- Deleting a workspace or your account needs a GitHub sign-in from the last 10 minutes. If yours is older, Hydrant asks you to **Sign in with GitHub again** and brings you back to the same confirmation.

## Steps

### Your account

**Settings › Account › Connected account** shows the GitHub account you sign in with. GitHub is the only sign-in provider, and your name comes from it.

Hydrant shows your GitHub photo unless you upload your own. Press **Upload image**, choose **Fit whole image** or **Fill square**, then press **Save avatar**. **Remove uploaded avatar** puts your GitHub photo back.

The same page holds **Your plan** (see [Plans and billing](/help/workspace/plans-and-billing)) and **Privacy**, where **Share product analytics** turns usage analytics for your account on or off across devices. It never includes issue content.

### Your preferences

**Settings › Preferences** is short:

- **Appearance**: light, system or dark, in this browser. System follows your device.
- **Notifications**: what reaches you and how. See [Notifications](/help/using/notifications).
- **Show sidebar counts**: the numbers beside views, in this browser, across workspaces.
- **Snooze timezone**: **Automatic (device)** or **Choose a timezone**. New snoozes use it; existing ones keep their time. See [Snooze](/help/using/snooze).

### Export a workspace

1. Open **Settings › General** and scroll to the **Danger zone**.
2. Under **Export workspace**, press **Request export**.
3. Hydrant builds the archive in the background and shows "Preparing your export…" with the time you asked. The page checks for you; you can leave and come back.
4. When it's ready, press **Download export**. The link shows the archive's size and stays up for **7 days**, until the date under **Available until**.

The download is a `.tar.gz` holding:

- `manifest.json`, which describes the archive and lists every image with an authenticated download link. Images are listed, not bundled.
- `tables/`, one JSON Lines file per table: issues, comments, activity, relationships, labels, views, projects, milestones, cycles, Playbook, Library, workflow and identity settings, and their history.
- `markdown/`, one Markdown file per issue, named by issue number.
- `people.jsonl`, with each member's display name and role.

Left out on purpose: email addresses, invitations, agent keys and connections, email delivery records, personal views, notifications, ownership offers and deletion history.

A workspace can have one export in progress at a time and one request an hour; a failed export doesn't use up the hour. An agent with write access, connected by an Admin or the Owner, can request the same archive with the `export_workspace` tool.

### Delete a workspace

Only the Owner can, from **Settings › General › Danger zone**.

1. Press **Delete workspace…**.
2. Type the workspace's exact name. Exact name, exact spelling.
3. Press **Schedule deletion**.

:::danger[What happens the moment you confirm]
- The workspace leaves everyone's list. Nobody can open it, including you, every Admin and every Member.
- Agent keys and connections stop working.
- A pending ownership offer is canceled. Pending invitations can't be accepted.
- Nobody is emailed. Your members just lose access.
:::

You get **seven days** of regret. To take it back, open **All workspaces**, find it under **Scheduled for deletion**, and press **Cancel deletion**. No re-typing, no fresh sign-in. The workspace comes back with its content, members and settings. Anything that expired in the meantime, like an invitation, stays expired.

:::danger[After seven days it's gone]
When the window closes, Hydrant permanently removes the workspace's issues, comments, projects, cycles, Playbook, uploaded images, agent keys and invitations, for everyone. Once the purge has started the row reads "Deletion in progress. It can no longer be canceled." Encrypted backups keep a copy for up to about five weeks; there is no immediate erasure. Your other workspaces and your account stay.
:::

Export first if you might want any of it back. A workspace scheduled for deletion stops counting toward your owned-workspace limit straight away.

### Delete your account

**Settings › Account › Danger zone › Delete account…**. Two things must be true first:

- **You own no workspaces.** Transfer ownership of each one (see [Members and invitations](/help/workspace/members#transfer-ownership)), or delete it and wait for its purge to finish. A workspace still in its seven-day window counts as owned.
- **You have no live Solo Pro subscription.** Cancel it with **Manage billing** first. A canceled subscription keeps counting until its paid period runs out.

Then type `delete my account` (case doesn't matter) and press **Delete my account**.

:::danger[Immediate. No cooling-off period, no undo.]
- Every session ends, everywhere you're signed in.
- You leave every workspace you belong to. Your agent keys and connections are revoked.
- Your name and email are replaced, your photo is removed, and your GitHub sign-in link, personal views and policy acceptances are deleted. Pending invitations to your email are declined.
- Your comments and other contributions stay in their workspaces, attributed to "Deleted account".
- Encrypted backups taken before the deletion still contain your account until they expire.
:::

There's no personal data export. If you need something from a workspace, ask its Owner or an Admin to export it before you go.

### How long Trash keeps things

A trashed issue sits in the **Trash** view for **30 days**. Restore it any time before then and it comes back with its status and blocking. After 30 days, Hydrant permanently removes it along with everything attached to it.

## What you should see

- After requesting an export: "Preparing your export…", then a **Download export** link with its size.
- After scheduling deletion: you land on **All workspaces**, where the Owner sees the workspace under **Scheduled for deletion** with "Deletes" and the exact date and time.
- After canceling: "… is back. Nothing was deleted."
- After deleting your account: you're signed out on the public home page.

## If it goes sideways

- **"Workspace export is not available yet."** Exports are switched off right now. Try later, or email bots@hydrant.dev.
- **"Workspace export is limited to 1 export per hour."** The message says how long to wait. Wait that long.
- **"This export did not finish after three attempts…"** The workspace is probably too big for one run. Email bots@hydrant.dev with the workspace name for a manual export.
- **"This export has expired. Request a new export."** Downloads last seven days. Request another.
- **"Only the Owner can delete this workspace."** Exactly what it says. Ask the Owner, or ask them to [transfer ownership](/help/workspace/members#transfer-ownership) to you.
- **"You still own …"** Account deletion is blocked by the workspaces listed. Transfer or delete them first.
- **"Cancel your subscription in the billing portal first."** Use **Manage billing**, then wait for the paid period to end.
- **"No victory lap yet. The result is unconfirmed."** The connection dropped. Press **Retry same request**. It sends the same request, so nothing happens twice.
- **You deleted the wrong workspace.** If it's within seven days, **Cancel deletion** on **All workspaces**. After that, it's gone.

Contact: bots@hydrant.dev