concept-task-lifecycle.md

Task lifecycle and status

Every task moves through status values tracked by Dotflow. They describe where a step is in its lifetime, including retries and failures. The canonical enum is TypeStatus.

Typical flow

1. NOT_STARTED — Queued but not yet executed.
2. IN_PROGRESS — Currently running.
3. COMPLETED — Finished successfully; output is available as context for the next task.
4. FAILED — Finished with an error; see error handling and task.errors-style observability in the API.

Retries and pauses

• RETRY — A retry is scheduled (for example after backoff); retry behavior is managed by the TaskEngine.
• PAUSED — Execution is held (depending on workflow configuration and provider behavior).

Retry policy is configured per task (timeouts, backoff, etc.); see Task retry and Task backoff.

Why it matters

Status drives callbacks, storage snapshots, and what you show in logs or UIs. Understanding the enum helps when debugging “stuck” workflows or unexpected RETRY loops.

References

• TypeStatus
• Task
• Task timeout