Deletion in Calamus is staged rather than immediate, but it is not staged the same way everywhere. A chapter passes through two timed tiers; a research source passes through one; a book passes through one that is named like the second. Read the table before relying on a recovery window.
“Delete forever” means four different things
Four controls remove work, and they do not do the same thing. Two are labeled Move to Archive and two Delete forever, and this table states which is which.
| Where | What it does | Recoverable after? |
|---|---|---|
| Trash, or Deleted Items — a chapter or scene | Move to Archive. Sends it to Archive and starts a fresh 30-day window. It deletes nothing. | Yes, for 30 days, from Archive |
| Archive | Delete forever. Deletes the chapter or scene. There is no tier beneath this one. | No |
| Trash, or Deleted Items — a research source | Delete forever. Deletes it. Research has no Archive tier, so the first window is the only one. | No |
| Archived Books | Delete forever. Deletes the book and everything filed under it. A book has one window and no second tier. | No |
The labels say which. In Trash, a chapter or scene offers Move to Archive, because that is what it does; a research source in the same list offers Delete forever, because Research has no Archive tier and the action is final. Two different labels in one list is deliberate. The confirmation dialog restates the outcome in every case, and it is worth reading before confirming.
Two things are called Archive
For a chapter or scene, Archive is the second tier: work arrives there after 30 days in Trash, or immediately if you chose Delete forever, and it has its own 30 days. For a book, Archived Books is the only tier: the book waits there for 30 days and is then deleted. A book never reaches a second window, whatever the wording suggests.
Chapters and scenes
A deleted chapter or scene moves to Trash and remains recoverable from that book’s Settings, under Deleted Items, for 30 days, with the remaining period shown. A process running daily at 03:00 UTC then writes it into Archive as a complete snapshot, which begins the second 30 days. Deletion is final only from Archive.
Books
A book deleted from its pen name dashboard is hidden immediately and appears in the Archived Books list with a countdown. After 30 days it is deleted permanently, together with everything filed under it: the Binder tree, every scene and its text, Codex entries, snapshots, moodboard items and research. The cascade is enforced by the database rather than by application code, so nothing is left behind.
Research sources
A deleted research source is recoverable for 30 days and is then deleted permanently. Research has no Archive tier, so the second window available to a chapter does not exist here.
What is never purged automatically
The Drafts and Ideas bucket is exempt from the scheduled process. Items placed there are retained until you remove them yourself.
Before you delete
Export first if the work matters. Backups are covered on the backups page. The complete schedule, including what is retained after an account is deleted, is in the data deletion notice.