Transcripts
This page explains session transcripts: the log of everything an agent did in a run on a ticket. By the end you’ll know how your organization decides whether transcripts are kept, how a project narrows that for itself, and where you read a past run.
A transcript is the record of one agent session: what it read, ran and wrote, turn by turn. While an agent works you watch it live on the ticket. Once it stops, the transcript is how you look back at what happened, for example to see why a run took the path it did.
Store, serve or neither
Section titled “Store, serve or neither”Three settings decide what happens to a session once the agent stops:
- Store transcripts: By Dawn keeps each session’s log. It’s end-to-end encrypted, so only your organization’s devices can open it, not By Dawn’s servers.
- Keep transcripts for: how many days a stored transcript is kept before it’s deleted for good.
- Serve on demand when storage is off: with storing off, you can still read a finished session by streaming it from the machine that ran it. Nothing is kept: the copy you load is temporary.
Out of the box, storing is off and serving on demand is on, so a past run is read straight from its machine, and only while that machine is online.
Your organization’s policy
Section titled “Your organization’s policy”An org owner sets these for the whole organization on the Session transcripts card in Settings, then Organization, then Security. Session transcripts covers each setting there, the window your plan allows and Delete all transcripts.
A project’s settings
Section titled “A project’s settings”A project can narrow the organization’s policy for itself, never widen it. Open Settings, then This project, then Transcripts. Each row shows the value in force and where it comes from: Inherited from organization, Built-in default, or the project’s own override.
| Row | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Storing sessions | Store transcripts or Don’t store transcripts for this project. |
| Keep transcripts for | A window no longer than the organization’s, such as 7, 14 or 30 days. |
| Serving on demand | Serve on demand from the machine or Don’t serve from the machine. |
Narrowing means a project can turn storing or serving off, or keep transcripts for less time, but can’t turn on something the organization has off. A row the organization has off says so, “Off for the organization, so it can’t be turned on here.”, and offers only off. That way a project with sensitive work can keep less than everyone else, while the organization’s limit still holds everywhere.
Project admins and org admins can change these rows. Other members see them read-only, with “Only project admins and org admins can change these.”
Read a past run
Section titled “Read a past run”On a ticket that has run, the run chip in the header above the agent’s session opens Session history: every run on the ticket, newest first, with Current run pinned at the top while one is going. Pick a run to open it. The pane shows Past run, and Back to current run returns you to the live session if there is one.
What a run shows depends on the policy when it ran:
- Stored: it opens straight away. Choose Replay to play it back turn by turn, with Pause, Resume and Skip to end.
- Loadable: it wasn’t stored, but its machine can serve it. Choose Load transcript, and By Dawn asks the machine to stream it. If the machine is offline, the button waits and reads Machine offline until it’s back.
- Unavailable: there’s nothing to read. A stored transcript past its window says “This transcript has expired and its contents were permanently deleted.”
Why does a run say on-demand serving is off?
The run wasn’t stored, and serving is off for the organization or the project, so there’s nowhere to read it from. Turn on storing or serving for future runs. A run that was neither stored nor served can’t be read later.
Does shortening the window delete transcripts already stored?
Transcripts older than the new window are deleted when By Dawn next clears out expired ones, so check before you shorten it.
Can a member turn storing on for one project?
Only within the organization’s policy, and only a project admin or org admin can. If the organization has storing off, no project can turn it on.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- Remote agents and machines: the machines that serve a transcript on demand.
- Start a ticket: what happens on a ticket while its agent runs.