Demo Coding Retention Policy

Purpose

DigitVA supports two demo/training patterns:

• admin-started demo sessions on ordinary projects
• project-declared demo/training projects

This document defines how demo-created coding artifacts must behave so they are visible long enough to inspect, but do not permanently pollute production workflow state.

Scope

This policy applies to coding sessions started through:

• vademo_start_coding

That action may now come from either:

• an admin-started demo session on a normal project
• a submission belonging to a project with va_project_master.demo_training_enabled = true

It does not change normal non-demo coder workflows entered through:

• vastartcoding
• vapickcoding
• varesumecoding
• varecode

Baseline

Current intended baseline:

• demo/training coding saves the same first-pass artifacts as normal coding:
  • Step 1 COD assessment
  • Narrative Quality Assessment
  • Social Autopsy Analysis
  • final COD submission
• demo-created artifacts must remain readable in the UI after save
• a demo-coded submission may appear on the coder dashboard while its demo artifacts are still active
• the coder's history lists their own demo final codes until demo_expires_at, marked "Demo · until " with View and no Recode; they are read uncached so each drops out when it expires, and they stay out of the coder's completed and not-codeable counts. Demo not-codeable reviews carry no expiry and are not listed
• project-declared demo/training projects are open training pools:
  • no project-specific coder grant is required
  • any active authenticated user may enter the coder flow for those project forms
  • non-demo projects still require normal coder grants
• demo-created artifacts are temporary and must expire automatically:
  • after 6 hours for admin-started demo sessions on normal projects
  • after va_project_master.demo_retention_minutes for project-declared demo/training projects

Demo Reviewing

Owner decision 2026-09-27; design in .tasks/2026-09-27-demo-reviewing.md.

• on demo_training_enabled projects a demo coder final code makes the case reviewer-eligible at once; the 24-hour recode window applies only to non-demo work and to admin-started demo sessions on ordinary projects
• demo/training projects are open reviewer pools: any active authenticated user may start reviewing their cases, as for demo coding
• the review on a demo case expires with the coder's demo final code: when that code expires, the case's reviewer final and initial assessments, reviewer review, NQA, social autopsy and reviewing allocation are deactivated and audited, final COD authority is cleared, and the case returns to ready for coding, even mid-review

Retention Window

Current intended baseline:

• active demo/training coding allocations are revoked after 15 minutes if not completed
• the retention window is 6 hours for admin-started demo sessions on ordinary projects
• the retention window is project-configurable in minutes for demo_training_enabled projects, with a default of 10 minutes
• the retention timer starts from the persisted demo coding artifact timestamps
• cleanup may run asynchronously; the system does not need to delete records at the exact second the 6-hour mark is crossed

Dashboard Entry

Current intended baseline:

• the normal coder dashboard should surface a dedicated DEMO-CODING shortcut whenever the current user can see at least one demo_training_enabled project
• that shortcut should preselect the first available demo/training project on the page instead of sending the user to the admin-only testing flow
• the dashboard should show a plain-language warning on the page:
  • these are demo-training forms
  • completed codes persist for 10 minutes by default unless the project sets a different demo_retention_minutes value
  • incomplete demo/training allocations are revoked after 15 minutes
• the existing Admin Testing Coding action remains admin-only and is still reserved for ad hoc demo sessions on ordinary non-demo projects

Cleanup Outcome

When the retention window expires for a demo-coded submission, the system must:

• deactivate the demo-created final COD record
• deactivate the demo-created active Step 1 COD row for the same coder whose demo final COD expired
• deactivate the demo-created Narrative Quality Assessment row
• deactivate the demo-created Social Autopsy Analysis row
• clear any authoritative-final pointer that references the expired demo final COD
• restore the submission to the normal non-demo workflow state implied by the remaining active records

If no non-demo terminal record remains, the submission should return to ready_for_coding.

Dashboard Behavior

Current intended baseline:

• while a demo/training allocation is still active, the user may see Continue Pending VA Coding
• for demo/training projects that continue button lasts only until the 15-minute allocation timeout is reached
• while demo artifacts remain active, the coder dashboard may show the submission as coded by the demo user
• once the relevant retention window expires and cleanup deactivates the demo artifacts, the submission must no longer appear as completed in coder history for that demo user

Auditability

Current intended baseline:

• demo allocation creation must remain auditable
• demo cleanup must write submission audit entries for each artifact it deactivates
• the cleanup audit trail must make it clear that the removal happened because of demo-retention expiry, not because of ordinary coding timeout

Change Control

Any future change must explicitly document:

• whether the demo retention window remains 6 hours
• whether the 15-minute demo allocation lock remains fixed or becomes configurable
• whether partial demo work is retained differently from finalized demo work
• whether demo-coded submissions should ever remain excluded from the real coding pool after cleanup
• whether demo artifacts require an explicit data-model flag instead of inference from workflow/audit state