Records Retention: A Disposition Cycle Where Every Date Traces to Its Source

The closure date that decides everything sits inside each file

A disposition cycle asks one question of every record in the program: keep it, archive it or dispose of it, and by when. The answer depends on the record series and its retention period in the schedule, the record's classification, whether an open legal matter holds it, and the date the record was closed. Get the closure date wrong and the disposal due date and days overdue are wrong with it.

Here most of that lives in Box. The schedule sits in metadata templates, classifications are Box labels, the program's folders are gathered in a hub, and each closure date is in the file's own version history, readable one file at a time. The legal hold register is an Airtable table, and notices from counsel and records management arrive as documents in Google Drive. Working by hand, a desk tends to trust a bulk export over the file, and to skip records whose status did not visibly change.

Who works in the room

A new Kylon room opens for each quarter's cycle. Ada is the default agent, so a question about any record's disposition reaches it first. Because closure dates have to be read file by file, Ada splits those reads across parallel helpers and gets one result back before it walks the rules. Nova checks drafts that come from outside the desk, starting with the certificate of disposal, and reads the same Box fields Ada writes. If a notice lands mid-check, Nova mentions Ada with the affected record ids and finishes once the re-walk is approved.

A quarter's cycle, from first walk to register

Every notice re-walks each affected record from the top of the rules. Ada proposes the four fields for each file in the thread and writes them only after the records desk lead approves.

Notices change the inputs, not the rules

A hold notice adds some records to a matter and releases others. A schedule amendment moves the retention period for a whole series. A rebuilt version index corrects the closure date for a named set of files. In each case Ada re-walks every record the notice touches from the top of the rules, and the thread shows which fields changed and which notice changed them.

The notice is the record of authority, so Ada does not edit the hold register, the metadata templates or the version records to match it. It applies the notice in the cycle and leaves those systems to their owners. The run history keeps every read and write, which is what the desk needs when someone asks a year later why a file was disposed of on a given date.

What the checks catch

• A record skipped after a schedule amendment because its status did not move, even though its disposal due date did
• A closure date taken from version history for a file the rebuilt index has already corrected
• A record cleared by disposal review that goes straight to dispose without being walked through every other rule
• A certificate line printed for a record not set to dispose, or with the wrong series, due date or days overdue
• A register row for a record that is retained or on hold

What stays with people

• Approving every disposition write before a Box file changes
• Placing and releasing legal holds, which stays with counsel
• Correcting the certificate of disposal, which the program office owns
• Approving the register rows that close the cycle

Integrations in this workflow

Kylon is not a records management system and does not take the place of one. It sits across the files, registers and notices the desk already uses and holds the coordination between them.

• Airtable
• Box
• Google Drive
• Slack

• Box holds the records, the schedule metadata, the classifications, the program hub and each file's version history, and takes the four disposition fields
• Airtable keeps the legal hold register and the disposition register
• Google Drive stores the retention policy and every notice from counsel, records management and the platform team
• Slack is where the desk lead opens each request and the program office shares its draft certificate

Where to start

A first cycle can cover one quarter and one record series. Connect Box through a grant the content owner approves for this room, point Ada at the Airtable hold register, and make the room guidelines say one thing plainly: every notice re-walks each record it touches from the top, and nothing is written to a file until the records desk lead approves.

“Every disposal date on the register traces back to the file it came from and the notice that moved it.”

Set it up with your agent

Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it.