> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://braintrust.dev/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Telemetry and data retention

> Control the telemetry a self-hosted data plane sends to Braintrust's control plane and enable data retention.

These settings control the telemetry your self-hosted data plane sends to Braintrust's control plane, and the service token that enables data retention.

## Enable or disable telemetry

Braintrust can send the following types of telemetry from your self-hosted data plane to Braintrust's control plane:

| Type      | Description                                                                                        |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `status`  | Health check information (enabled by default)                                                      |
| `metrics` | System metrics (CPU/memory) and Braintrust-specific metrics like indexing lag (enabled by default) |
| `usage`   | Billing usage telemetry for aggregate usage metrics (enabled by default)                           |
| `memprof` | Memory profiling statistics and heap usage patterns                                                |
| `logs`    | Application logs                                                                                   |
| `traces`  | Distributed tracing data                                                                           |

By default, `status`, `metrics`, and `usage` are enabled. You can change the defaults as follows:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="AWS">
    Add the `monitoring_telemetry` variable to your `variables.tf` file, and include the types of telemetry you want to send in the validation condition as a comma-separated list:

    ```bash {19} theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark-dimmed"}}
    variable "monitoring_telemetry" {
      description = <<-EOT
        The telemetry to send to Braintrust's control plane to monitor your deployment. Should be in the form of comma-separated values.

        Available options:
        - status: Health check information (default)
        - metrics: System metrics (CPU/memory) and Braintrust-specific metrics like indexing lag (default)
        - usage: Billing usage telemetry for aggregate usage metrics
        - memprof: Memory profiling statistics and heap usage patterns
        - logs: Application logs
        - traces: Distributed tracing data
      EOT
      type        = string
      default     = "status,metrics,usage"

      validation {
        condition = var.monitoring_telemetry == "" || alltrue([
          for item in split(",", var.monitoring_telemetry) :
          contains(["metrics", "logs", "traces", "status", "memprof", "usage"], trimspace(item))
        ])
        error_message = "The monitoring_telemetry value must be a comma-separated list containing only: metrics, logs, traces, status, memprof, usage."
      }
    }
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="GCP / Azure">
    Update the `controlPlaneTelemetry` setting in your Helm `values.yaml` file to include the types of telemetry you want to send:

    ```bash {10} theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark-dimmed"}}
    # Global configs
    global:
      orgName: "<your org name on Braintrust>"
      # When createNamespace is true, the namespace will be created and resources will be in global.namespace
      # When createNamespace is false, resources will use .Release.Namespace (the namespace specified during helm install/upgrade)
      createNamespace: false
      namespace: "braintrust"
      namespaceAnnotations: {}
      labels: {}
      controlPlaneTelemetry: "status,metrics,usage,logs,traces,memprof"
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

Braintrust also has access to endpoints reporting metrics about the backfill and compaction status of Brainstore segments. This is metadata only, no customer data. To disable these endpoints, set the `DISABLE_SYSADMIN_TELEMETRY` environment variable to `true`.

<Warning>
  If you disable telemetry, Braintrust's ability to proactively monitor your deployment and diagnose issues will be significantly limited. Before disabling, consider the impact on support response times.
</Warning>

## Data retention

Data retention requires a [service token](/docs/admin/access-control/manage-permissions#use-service-accounts) so the data plane can query object metadata and look up retention policies configured in your organization.

Braintrust automatically provisions this token when you configure your self-hosted data plane URL in [organization settings](/docs/admin/organizations#configure-api-urls-self-hosted). It is created with read-only permissions on projects and stored securely in your data plane.

To verify or refresh the token, go to **<Icon icon="settings-2" /> Settings** > [**<Icon icon="server" /> Service tokens**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/configuration/org/service-tokens). If the token doesn't exist, click **Create**. To rotate it, click **Refresh** — the data plane will start using the new token automatically.

<Note>
  Before configuring retention, review your cloud provider's bucket retention policies. See [Cloud provider retention policies](/docs/admin/data-management/retention#cloud-provider-policies) for details.
</Note>