Run and attempt states

A run is one execution of a task. An attempt is one try inside that run, so a run that retried twice has three attempts. For what they are, see runs and attempts.

Run statuses

Status	Means	Set when
pending	Waiting for a runner to pick it up	The run is created, or a stale run is requeued
assigned	A runner has claimed it	The runner’s heartbeat claims the run
in_progress	An attempt is executing	The runner opens its first attempt
paused_approval	Stopped at an approval gate	The task needs approval, or the agent asks mid-run
finalized	Finished, with an outcome	The runner reports a result, an approval is denied, or the control plane stops it
cancelled	Stopped deliberately	Cancelled from the run
review	Reserved	Nothing sets it today

Why `review` is listed

review is part of the run format and no run reaches it, so it is listed and marked rather than quietly dropped. Review of a finished run happens on the Reviews page against a finalized run, not by parking the run in a state.

The approval gate

paused_approval is the one status a run can enter and leave without finishing.

1. A run that needs approval is created already paused, before any runner sees it. A run that hits a gate mid-flight is paused where it stands.
2. The run remembers the status it paused from.
3. Approving returns the run to that remembered status, so a run paused before it was claimed goes back to pending and one paused mid-execution resumes.
4. Denying finalizes the run with the outcome inconclusive and the reason approval_denied, fails the running attempt, and frees the runner.

Terminal outcomes

A finalized run carries exactly one outcome.

Outcome	Means
accepted	The work was accepted. This is the one that lets the task advance
rejected	The work was produced and rejected
inconclusive	No usable answer. Denied, abandoned, or stopped

Alongside it, a run may carry a reason. Three are written by the platform itself rather than by a runner:

Reason	Written when
approval_denied	An approval gate was denied
abandoned	The assigned runner went stale and the run was out of attempts
wall_clock_exceeded	The run passed its wall-clock limit and was stopped

Attempt states

An attempt carries a status and a phase. The status says whether it is alive; the phase says what it is doing.

Status	Means
running	Executing now
completed	Finished and reported a result
failed	Finished without one
cancelled	Stopped before it finished

Phase	Means
planning	Working out what to do
executing	Doing it
awaiting_review	Waiting for its work to be evaluated
done	Finished

When a run retries

Every run carries an attempt ceiling, from the budget resolved for its task type. A run whose runner goes quiet is requeued to pending and tried again while attempts remain. Once they run out, the run finalizes inconclusive with the reason abandoned instead of waiting forever.

The current values are on limits.

Next steps

• Runs and attempts: the same machine, explained rather than tabulated.
• Task states: what the task does while its run moves.
• The approvals queue: deciding a gate.