# Cleanup

When users delete something in Marginalia - a book, a story part, a lorebook, an inference provider - it disappears
from their lists, but stays in the database. That makes deleting safe and keeps references working (a book still
knows the provider that wrote its parts). Until then users can restore their deleted objects from the
[Trash](../trash.md) tab. **Cleanup** removes such deleted data for good, to keep the database small.

![The Cleanup tab](../../images/admin-cleanup.png)

## Running a cleanup

!!!warning
Cleanup can't be undone, what it removes is gone from the [Trash](../trash.md) too. [Create a database backup](database-backups.md) first.
!!!

1. Open the **Cleanup** tab of the admin page and click **Analyze**. Nothing is changed yet.
2. Check the result (see below).
3. Click **Run Cleanup** and confirm *n objects will be permanently removed*.

Cleanup covers the data of all users.

Files are not removed. Cleanup deletes entries from the database only; the files of deleted
[resources](../resources.md) (pictures of the parts) stay in the data folder of their owner.

## Seeing what is deleted

**Trash** below the tables lists the deleted objects of all users, one row per object (open it to load the table),
so you can see what a cleanup would remove and restore what somebody asked you to bring back. It is the same table
as the [Trash](../trash.md) tab, including the filters by user and type and the *Extended Content* link.

![The Trash section of the Cleanup tab](../../images/admin-trash.png)

## Reading the analysis

The first table has one row per kind of data:

| Column | |
|---|---|
| **Entity** | The kind of data: `Manuscript` (books), `ChatMessage` (story parts), `Lorebook`, `LorebookEntry`, `AI` (inference providers), `Protocol`, `Summary`, `Tag`, `TagRelation`, `User`... |
| **Deleted** | How many are deleted. |
| **To purge** | How many will be removed by *Run Cleanup*, including data that belongs to deleted objects. |
| **Blocked** | Deleted, but still in use, so they are kept. |

**Deleted objects still in use** lists the blocked objects with the name and **Referenced by** - what still uses them.

## What is removed

Cleanup removes deleted objects that nothing alive uses any more, together with the data that belongs only to them:

| Deleted | Removed with it |
|---|---|
| a book | all its story parts, summaries and tag links |
| a lorebook | its entries and tag links; other lorebooks no longer include it as a sub lorebook |
| a story part | the part (its children were already moved to its parent) and its summary |
| an inference provider or protocol | cleared from the users' defaults in *Settings* |
| a tag | its links to books and entries |
| a user | everything they owned: books (with their story parts and summaries), lorebooks, inference providers, protocols, tags and settings |

## What is kept

A deleted object is **blocked** - kept - while something alive still uses it:

| Blocked | Because | To unblock |
|---|---|---|
| a deleted inference provider or protocol | a book still uses it as its model or protocol | select another one in the book's *About* tab, or delete the book |
| a deleted lorebook (with its entries) | a book still uses it | select another lorebook in the book, or clear it |
| a deleted story part | it is the last part of a book's active branch | switch the book to another branch, or delete the book |
| a deleted user | something of another user still uses their data (a book using their inference provider or lorebook) | change or delete the other user's book |

Run *Analyze* again after unblocking.

## Reference model

**Reference Model** at the bottom lists every reference between the kinds of data and its policy - useful when you
want to understand why something is blocked:

| Policy | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Blocks purge** | A deleted target is kept while a live object refers to it. |
| **Purged with target** | The referring object belongs to the target and is removed with it (entries with their lorebook). |
| **Owns target** | The target belongs to the referring object (a summary to its part). |
| **Cleared on purge** | The reference is removed when the target is purged (sub lorebooks, default model). |

Extensions can take part in cleanup with their own rules.