Policy

Rudel sandboxes can carry metadata that explains who owns them, why they exist, when they should expire, and where they came from.

Ownership

wp rudel create \
  --name=qa-run \
  --owner=dennis \
  --labels=qa,checkout \
  --purpose="Reproduce payment bug"

Metadata is stored in the environment record and can be updated later:

wp rudel update qa-run-3be7 --owner=agent --labels=agent,checkout

Expiry

wp rudel create --name=temp-run --ttl-days=2

On create, --ttl-days counts from creation; on update, from now. Set default_ttl_days in rudel_config to give every new sandbox an expiry. Or set an explicit timestamp:

wp rudel update temp-run-3be7 --expires-at=2026-06-10T12:00:00+00:00

Expired sandboxes are eligible for cleanup unless they are protected. Remove an expiry with wp rudel update <id> --clear-expiry.

Protection

wp rudel update qa-run-3be7 --protected

Protected sandboxes are skipped by cleanup, both manual and scheduled. Protection does not block wp rudel destroy or Rudel::destroy().

Lineage

When a sandbox is cloned from another sandbox, Rudel records source metadata in the new environment record.

That lineage is informational. It helps operators understand how a sandbox was created, but it is not a second source of truth.