The contact archive
Where contacts deleted on your phone end up, why they are not really deleted, and how to bring one back.
The archive exists because of the phone sync, and it solves a specific problem.
Contacts you delete on your phone end up here. Links to projects and invoices are kept, and you can restore them.
Why deletion from a phone is not deletion
A phone address book is something people tidy on a train. The contact list here is a business record, and the contact you just cleared off your phone may be the primary contact on a project you invoiced eighteen months ago.
So a deletion arriving over the sync archives rather than destroys. The person leaves your phone, and their history here survives.
What is kept
Everything: their links to projects, the organizations they belonged to, and any invoice relationship that ran through them. The archive is a state, not a graveyard.
Restoring
Open Contacts, Archive, search if you need to, and restore. The contact returns exactly as it was and syncs back to your phone.
Deleting from Steerd
Deleting a contact inside Steerd is a real deletion. The archive is specifically the softer path for the phone, where deletions are casual.
If you want a contact off your phone but kept here, deleting it on the phone is exactly the right move. That is what this is for.