Object Lock - Storj Docs

Object Lock allows you to protect objects from being deleted or overwritten for a specified period or indefinitely. Object Lock operates in three modes:

Governance Mode: Protects objects against accidental deletion but allows authorized users to bypass the lock.
Compliance Mode: Provides immutable protection; no user can delete or modify the object until the retention period expires.
Legal Hold: Prevents an object from being deleted until the legal hold is explicitly removed, regardless of retention settings.

Governance Mode Override Permissions

By default, the account owner and any user with default project access have Governance Mode override permissions due to Storj's macaroon-based access system, which restricts capabilities rather than explicitly granting permissions.

To avoid unintentionally granting Governance Mode override permissions, use S3 credentials that explicitly restrict this capability for any operations involving Object Lock.

Note: Storj does not currently support role-based access controls (RBAC) for default restrictions by roles. This functionality may be added in the future.

Using Object Lock

For enabling object lock, and setting bucket level defaults please see Object Lock
For object lock related object operations please see Objects

Technical Details

New S3 Actions Supported:

Action	API Description	Description of Change(s)
GetObjectLockConfiguration	Gets the object lock configuration for a bucket.	Will return the ObjectLockConfiguration with `ObjectLockEnabled` either as `Enabled` or empty. `Rule` will not be included as a response element as specifying a bucket-level object Lock rule is initially out of scope.
PutObjectLockConfiguration	Enables Object Lock configuration on a bucket.	ObjectLockEnabled: Indicates if Object Lock is enabled on the bucket. Rule (Optional): Specifies the Object Lock rule (mode and period) for the bucket. The period can be either `Days` or `Years`.
PutObjectRetention	Places an object retention configuration on an object.
GetObjectRetention	Retrieves an object's retention settings.
GetObjectLegalHold	Retrieves the Legal Hold status of an object.
PutObjectLegalHold	Applies a Legal Hold to the specified object.

Existing S3 Actions Updated

Action	API Description	Description of Change(s)
CreateBucket	Creates a new bucket.	CreateBucket will now accept the following request parameter: `x-amz-bucket-object-lock-enabled`
HeadObject	Retrieves metadata from an object without returning the object itself.	HeadObject will now return: Mode that is currently in place for the requested object Date/time that the object's lock will expire
GetObject	Retrieves an object from a bucket.	GetObject will now return: Mode that is currently in place for the requested object Date/time that the object's lock will expire
PutObject	Adds an object to a bucket.	PutObject will now: Prevent locked object versions from being overwritten PutObject will now accept the following request parameters: `x-amz-object-lock-mode` `x-amz-object-lock-retain-until-date`
CopyObject	Creates a copy of an object that is already stored on Storj.	CopyObject will now accept the following request parameters: `x-amz-object-lock-mode` `x-amz-object-lock-retain-until-date`
CreateMultipartUpload	This action initiates a multipart upload and returns an upload ID.	CreateMultipartUpload will now accept the following request parameters: `x-amz-object-lock-mode` `x-amz-object-lock-retain-until-date` Storj has a unique object level TTL. Any request that has both a TTL and a retention period will be rejected to prevent TTL's from conflicting with object lock retention periods.
DeleteBucket	Deletes the specified bucket.	Forced deletion of a bucket with locked objects will be prevented.
DeleteObject	Removes an object from a bucket.	Deletion of an object with a retention set will be prevented.