Execution lifecycle (spec)

The canonical pipeline lifecycle exists to make traces semantically stable across refactors.

Canonical phases

Phase	Purpose	Allowed transitions
INIT	Pre-run validation and context normalization	PLAN
PLAN	Planning / decomposition (if enabled)	EXECUTE
EXECUTE	Main agent execution	JUDGE
JUDGE	Convert agent outputs into a decision	VERIFY
VERIFY	Optional verification / veto checks	FINALIZE
FINALIZE	Emit final artifacts and trace metadata	DONE
DONE	Terminal	(none)
ABORTED	Terminal for fatal aborts	(none)

Allowed transitions are defined in code by the canonical pipeline definition.

Stop reasons and termination

The system records:

• stop reasons (why a phase stopped), and
• termination reasons (why the overall run ended)

Termination reasons are part of final_status and are also recorded in trace entries when present.

Trace expectations

• A trace MUST contain at least one entry.
• Entries SHOULD be tagged with the phase they correspond to when available.

See also:

• docs/spec/execution_artifacts.md
• docs/spec/failure_semantics.md