Setup Audit Trail for configuration change history
Key Takeaway
Setup Audit Trail shows who changed what in Setup and when. Salesforce deletes that history after 180 days, so download it at least every 6 months and store the files outside Salesforce if you need a longer record.
Setup Audit Trail is a log of changes made in Setup. Admins, security teams, and auditors use it to find out who changed the configuration, what they changed, and when. They also use it to spot unauthorized or risky changes. Setup Audit Trail is most useful when several admins work in the same org.
What each entry tells you
Setup Audit Trail tracks the recent setup changes that you and other admins make. Each entry lists the date of the change, who made it, and what the change was. So when a configuration change surprises your team, the audit trail tells you who made it.
Your org has four admins. On Monday, support reps report that they can't save a case without filling in a field that was optional last week. No one planned this change. Priya, one of the admins, opens the audit trail and finds an entry from Friday afternoon. The entry shows the date, the user Tom Becker, and that he changed a validation rule on the Case object. Priya now knows when the change happened and who to ask about it.
The "User" column doesn't always show the person who made the change. Two situations change what you see in an entry.
If a delegate makes a setup change on behalf of an end user...
The delegate's username appears in the "Delegate User" column. The user who granted access appears in the User column.
If an admin makes a change through Setup with Agentforce (Beta)...
The agent's name and ID appear in the "AI Agent" column. The admin who used the agent appears in the User column.