Every state, listed

The exact words Constat uses, and what each one means.

A requirement

State	Meaning
draft	Written, not yet frozen. Still editable.
approved	The words and the envelope are frozen. Ready to be built.
building	An attempt is running.
implemented	The attempt finished; evidence is still arriving.
validating	The door is open. Waiting on a person.
verified	Accepted. A Constat was sealed.
failed	Refused. The reason is on the record.
withdrawn	Taken off the board. Sealed records are unaffected.

An attempt

State	Meaning
queued	Dispatched; no runner has taken it yet.
running	A runner has it.
completed	The agent finished and reported.
failed	It ended without reporting. The record says what the tool said.
halted	Stopped at a cap, by a person, or because the runner never reported back.

A release

State	Meaning
waiting_for_ground	Pressed while an attempt of this project was still running. It is kept, not refused, and takes itself the moment the last attempt ends.
queued	The ground is free. Waiting for a runner to take it.
taken	A runner has it: merging the branch, then starting your deploy.
waiting_for_person	The default branch is protected; a pull request was opened instead.
merged	Constat has seen the merge commit on the default branch.
live	Observed answering at that commit.
refused	It did not go through, and the reason is recorded. Most often the branch no longer merges.
withdrawn	A person took the release back. Never a failure, and never confused with refused.

A release travels in one direction, and only two states end it:

pressed ──▶ waiting_for_ground ──▶ queued ──▶ taken ──┬──▶ merged ──▶ live
                (an attempt is        (the ground      │
                 still running)        is free)        ├──▶ waiting_for_person
                                                       └──▶ refused

withdrawn is the one way a release leaves without going through, and it is a person's own doing.

Sending accepted work round again

Work that a person accepted can still fail to reach the default branch: another attempt landed first and the branch no longer merges. The seal is untouched by that — it keeps its number, its verdict and its evidence — and the requirement page says the work is judged and not on the default branch, with one control: Send it round again.

That starts an attempt of a particular kind, called a landing. It is not a state, and it is not a fresh ask:

An ordinary attempt	A landing
Asks for work that has not been judged	Carries work a person already accepted
Opens a door, and waits for a verdict	Opens no door, and is never re-judged
May seal a new Constat	The seal keeps its number
Starts from the default branch	Rebuilds that judged work on today's default branch

If the rebuilt branch comes back green and merges cleanly, Constat releases it itself and the trail says so. If it still will not merge, it is refused in the same words as any release, and the way back round is offered again.

Evidence — what Constat observed

Type	What it is
ci_run	A run of your CI and what it concluded.
criterion_check	What CI said about the check a criterion named.
diff_stat	What the change actually touched.
artifact	What CI published: the report, the pictures.
screenshot	A screen at the moment a check passed.
preview	A running copy of the attempt, to try.
build	A build, where the project has one.
scope_violation	A change outside the files the envelope allowed.
method_substitution	The attempt used a different method than the ask named.
manual_review	A person's own look, recorded as a person's.

Each piece carries its source. criterion_check is never something an agent promises to produce — it is what Constat reads out of CI's own report.

Claims — what the agent said

Type	What it means
tests_pass	The agent says the checks pass.
implemented	The agent says it built the thing.
files_changed	The agent's account of what it touched.
criteria_met	The agent's view of a criterion, met or not.
infeasible	It cannot be done as asked, and why. A complete, acceptable report.
other	Anything else the agent wanted on the record.

A claim is never used as a result. Independent evidence is collected to check it.

Roles and seats

Role	May
admin	Everything, including people and settings.
author	Write and approve requirements, dispatch attempts.
reader	Read.

Judge is granted per project and is what a verdict requires.