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Sunset a project

Cancel subscriptions, revoke keys, decide what happens to domains and close accounts, then retire the project.

The Sunset playbook winds a project down. It walks you through cancelling, revoking and closing everything the project uses, then moves its items to deleted and marks the project as retired. Nothing is deleted without your confirmation.

#Before you start

  • Make sure everything the project uses is in your vault. Items you add after the run starts aren't included, and you'll be asked to restart the run.
  • Unlock your vault. See Unlock your vault.
  • A run covers every item in the project at once, up to 50. If the project has more, delete the items you no longer need first. They stay in Recently deleted for 30 days.

#Start a run

Open the project page. Under Sunset project, choose Show sunset button, then Sunset project. A start screen lists every item the run covers and how many steps it has. Choose Start to begin. If a run is already in progress the button reads Resume sunset. See Runs.

#Steps

  1. Review everything this project uses. Check that all of it is in your vault.
  2. Export data you want to keep. Optional. Download data, backups or records before you cancel anything.
  3. Cancel each subscription or membership at its provider and keep the confirmation. Then record what happened, below.
  4. Revoke each API key and database credential at the provider. For a database, export what you need first. Then record what happened.
  5. Decide what to do with each domain: Keep, Let it lapse or Transfer. Choose Save decision.
  6. Remove the DNS records StackHangar added for a domain. Optional. Only records StackHangar added for you are removed, after a passkey check. StackHangar only knows the records it saved, so also check your DNS provider by hand. Removing a mail record stops email on that name. Skip this if you want to keep them. On the Free plan, delete the records by hand.
  7. Close the account for a login. Optional. Skip it if another project still uses the account.
  8. Move the items to deleted. After a confirmation that lists what will be deleted, the project's items move to Recently deleted for 30 days and their reminders stop. Domains you chose to keep stay in your vault.
  9. Retire the project. The project is marked as retired. You can still find it in your vault.

#Recording what happened

For a cancelled subscription or a revoked key, choose one of:

  • Revoked at the provider or Cancelled at the provider: it no longer works or bills.
  • Still used by another project — leave it working: don't revoke or cancel it. This project's copy is still moved to deleted at the end. The other project keeps its own.

If another live item in your vault seems to share the key or the account, a warning lists it before you choose.

#If new items turn up

If you add an item to the project after the run started, a notice lists it. Deleting and retiring wait until you choose Restart Sunset with these items. That starts a new run and closes the old one once the new one is saved. Steps you did in the old run need to be marked done again.

#Finish

Finish closes the run as Completed. The summary shows the monthly spend removed, how many items were deleted and how many domains were kept. If you change your mind, items stay in Recently deleted for 30 days and can be restored there.

#If something goes wrong

  • If you start a run and the project has too many items, the start screen tells you how many to delete first.
  • If you abandon a run, steps you did stay done and anything they changed stays changed.