# Exporting your data (/docs/guides/users/export)



<StatusBadge status="available" />

Self-hosting only counts as owning your data if you can actually take all of it with you. RyTask
gives you a **complete export** of your organization — every work item, comment, time log, and
all the people, projects, and metadata around them — as a machine-readable archive or as CSV
(FR-PORT-003, FR-PORT-004). There are no crippled partial exports here.

## Who can export, and from where [#who-can-export-and-from-where]

Exporting is **Owner / Admin only** — it reaches across the whole organization, so it sits with
the people who already administer it. Others get a polite `403`.

In the app, open **Settings → Organization** and use the **Export** card. Or call the API
directly:

```
GET /export/workspace
```

Both paths return the same data; the UI buttons just trigger an authenticated download in your
browser, saved with a sensible filename.

## The JSON archive [#the-json-archive]

The default export is a single JSON document, versioned `rytask.workspace-export` v1 (the version
field is there so future readers can stay backward-compatible). It contains:

| Section              | What's in it                                                                                                                |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Organization         | The org's own metadata.                                                                                                     |
| Workspaces & members | Every workspace and who belongs to it.                                                                                      |
| Projects             | Projects with their statuses, labels, and custom fields.                                                                    |
| Work items           | **Every** item — including soft-deleted ones, flagged with `deletedAt`.                                                     |
| Label links          | Which labels are attached to which items.                                                                                   |
| Comments             | All comments, including soft-deleted ones.                                                                                  |
| Time logs            | All tracked time, including soft-deleted entries.                                                                           |
| `counts`             | A self-consistency block — how many items, comments, and time logs the archive holds, so you can check nothing was dropped. |

## CSV exports [#csv-exports]

When you want a spreadsheet instead of the full archive, ask for CSV one entity at a time:

```
GET /export/workspace?format=csv&entity=work-items
GET /export/workspace?format=csv&entity=time-logs
```

Each returns RFC-4180 CSV with one row per record and a `rytask-<entity>.csv` download filename.
The CSV is assembled from the same read-model as the JSON archive, so the two can never disagree.

## What you can count on [#what-you-can-count-on]

* **Complete.** Unlike the JSON in reports (which omits deleted rows), this is a *safe-exit*
  archive — soft-deleted items, comments, and time logs are **included** and clearly flagged, so
  the export is suitable for a full migration or a GDPR data request.
* **Tenant-scoped.** The export contains your organization's data and nothing else; there is no
  way to reach another org's rows.
* **Read-only.** Exporting changes nothing — it writes no activity, sends no notifications, and
  leaves every record exactly as it was.

## What's next [#whats-next]

CSV *import*, importers from other trackers, and scheduled self-hosted backups are on the
roadmap — see [import and export](/docs/guides/roadmap/import-and-export). Roles and what each
can do are covered under [permissions and roles](/docs/reference/permissions).