m.room.retention can be set to anything by anyone with state power. A
fat-fingered `max_lifetime: 1000` blanked the timeline for every Lotus
user and, for members with "Enforce Message Retention" on, the sweeper
redacted all their messages within a minute. The RETENTION_MIN_MS floor
existed but was never applied.
- effectiveRetentionMs(): anything under 10 min counts as off; used by
getRoomRetentionMs (sweeper) and the timeline's hiding.
- The sweeper never deletes under a policy less than 24 h old, so a
mistake or a malicious change can be reverted before anything is lost.
(Local hiding of expired messages still applies at once.)
Verified headless (the issue's repro, enforcement on): after
max_lifetime 1000, all 4 messages stay visible and none are redacted
after 45 s (before: timeline blank, all 4 redacted). Unit tests for the
floor and the grace window.
Fixes#298
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_017PCb59uY3UKqDqt7B6hzd5
B1 of the Matrix protocol-gaps roadmap, gate-green (688 tests):
- StateEvent.RoomRetention + a shared utils/retention.ts (presets, isExpired,
getRoomRetentionMs) with tests.
- RoomRetention settings control (PL-gated preset buttons Off/1d/1w/1m) in Room
Settings → General → Message Retention.
- Timeline hides events past the room's max_lifetime (gated behind Show Hidden
Events, like redactions) — messages visually disappear, losslessly.
- Opt-in setting enforceRetentionLocally (default OFF) + a headless
RetentionSweeper that permanently redacts the user's OWN expired messages
(own-only, loaded-timeline scope, dedupe + retry). Nothing auto-deletes unless
the user opts in.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>