Archiving Documents
Archiving retires a document without deleting it. The content stays intact and every link keeps working. The page just stops showing up where you browse: the sidebar tree, search, and AI assistant listings.
Use it for pages that are no longer true but still worth keeping: an old runbook, a superseded spec, last year’s onboarding guide. Deleting says “this should not exist.” Archiving says “this is no longer current.”
Archive vs trash vs hidden
- Archive — the document is retired but readable. Links keep working, and it’s read-only until restored. It never expires.
- Trash (Document Workflow) — the document is on its way out. Links to it break.
- Hidden (Document Visibility & Access Level) — the document is current, it just doesn’t clutter the sidebar.
Archive a document
- Open the document’s actions menu — in the sidebar tree or on the document page.
- Select Archive.
- Confirm in the Archive document dialog.
Archiving a document archives everything nested under it. The dialog tells you how many documents will move before you confirm.
What happens to an archived document
An archived document turns read-only. Its content, name, alias, fields, and access level stay frozen until you restore it. Comments stay open, though — so you can record why a page was retired right on the page.
It leaves the sidebar tree, search results, and AI assistant listings. Everything else keeps working: existing links, share links, and backlinks all still resolve. Anyone who opens it sees a banner saying so.
You can still delete an archived document, and a share password set on it keeps protecting the link.
Browse and restore
Archived documents live in the Archive section at the bottom of the sidebar tree. Recently archived documents appear first.
The section is not there at all until something is in it — so if you are looking for it on a project where nothing has been archived yet, it is missing rather than hidden.
To restore one, open it from the Archive section and use the restore action. Restoring a parent does not restore its children — each document was archived for its own reason, so each comes back deliberately. Children left behind stay in the Archive at the top level, with a note of where they came from.
Point readers to a replacement
When a newer page took over, say so — readers who follow an old link land on the retired page and need somewhere to go.
- Open the archived document’s actions menu.
- Select the replaced-by action.
- In Replaced by, select the document that supersedes it.
The archived page’s banner now names its replacement, and the live document shows a Supersedes note pointing back. Whichever page a reader lands on, the relationship is visible. The successor has to be a live document in the same project.
Find archived documents
Search hides archived documents by default. Toggle Include archived in Search & Ask AI to bring them into results. The Tree Filters & Sorting can also target archived documents directly.
For docs-as-code projects
If you sync this project from a repository, one project setting decides what a deleted file means. Documents deleted via CLI offers Delete permanently, the default, or Move to archive. Pick the archive mode and removing a file retires the page instead of breaking its links.
The CLI also archives on demand, with meldoc archive and meldoc unarchive — see Command Reference.
That setting governs GitHub Sync too: it is one rule about what a vanished file means, not one per tool.
What’s next?
Renaming & Redirects — The other way links survive change: alias redirects.
Document Workflow — Draft, published, and the trash.