WO Status Transitions

Benchmarked against: Anthropic — Handling stop reasons System: WO System v4.0 (Captain-approved, 2026-03-01) Enforcement: State machine with transition gates + RBAC

Every work order follows a strict state machine. Invalid transitions are rejected by the system. Some transitions require specific fields to be filled before they are allowed.

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State machine

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Status definitions

Status	Icon	Meaning	Who triggers
pending	🔴	WO created, awaiting assignee acceptance	System (on create)
accepted	🟡	Assignee acknowledged, will begin work	Assignee
in_progress	🔵	Work actively being done	Assignee
blocked	⚫	Cannot proceed, waiting on external dependency	Assignee
review	🟣	Work completed, submitted for Captain review	Assignee
approved	🟢	Captain verified and approved	Captain only
rejected	🔴	Captain reviewed and returned for revision	Captain only
cancelled	⬜	WO abandoned	Captain only

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Transition gates

Some transitions require specific fields. The system enforces these gates — attempting a transition without required fields returns an error with missing_fields hint.

Transition	Required fields	Why
in_progress → review	completion_summary + actual_hours (> 0)	Can't review without knowing what was done
in_progress → blocked	notes	Must explain what's blocking
blocked → in_progress	notes	Must explain what unblocked
review → approved	review_notes	Captain must document what was verified
review → rejected	review_notes	Captain must explain why rejected
any → cancelled	notes	Must explain why cancelled

Example: submitting for review

# This will FAIL — missing required fields
complete_work_order(
    order_id="WO-2026-0305-001",
    summary=""  # Empty summary
)
# Error: {"error": "missing_fields", "hint": ["completion_summary", "actual_hours"]}

# This will SUCCEED
complete_work_order(
    order_id="WO-2026-0305-001",
    summary="Deployed Text Subgraph. 327 entries processed, 94% accuracy.",
    actual_hours=3.5
)

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RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)

Not all users can trigger all transitions:

Role	Identities	Allowed transitions
Captain	夏哥, 小西, system:captain-proxy	All transitions including approve/reject/cancel
Assignee	The agent assigned to the WO	accept, start, block, unblock, submit for review
Other agents	Any non-assigned agent	View only — cannot change status

Captain-only actions

These transitions can only be performed by Captain identities:

• review → approved (verify_work_order with approved=True)
• review → rejected (verify_work_order with approved=False)
• any → cancelled (requires notes)

Attempting these as a non-Captain returns a permission error.

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Valid transitions table

From ↓ / To →	pending	accepted	in_progress	blocked	review	approved	rejected	cancelled
pending	—	✅	—	—	—	—	—	✅ Captain
accepted	—	—	✅	—	—	—	—	✅ Captain
in_progress	—	—	—	✅ notes	✅ summary+hours	—	—	✅ Captain
blocked	—	—	✅ notes	—	—	—	—	✅ Captain
review	—	—	—	—	—	✅ Captain	✅ Captain	✅ Captain
rejected	—	—	✅	—	—	—	—	✅ Captain
approved	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	— (terminal)
cancelled	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	— (terminal)

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Transition history

Every WO maintains a complete transition history — an audit trail of every state change:

{
  "transition_history": [
    {
      "from_status": "pending",
      "to_status": "accepted",
      "changed_by": "Mac CLI 小克",
      "timestamp": "2026-03-05T09:35:00Z",
      "notes": null
    },
    {
      "from_status": "accepted",
      "to_status": "in_progress",
      "changed_by": "Mac CLI 小克",
      "timestamp": "2026-03-05T09:36:00Z",
      "notes": "Starting implementation"
    },
    {
      "from_status": "in_progress",
      "to_status": "review",
      "changed_by": "Mac CLI 小克",
      "timestamp": "2026-03-05T13:00:00Z",
      "notes": null,
      "completion_summary": "Deployed successfully, 94% accuracy",
      "actual_hours": 3.5
    }
  ]
}

Access via get_work_order_detail(order_id) — always returns the full history.

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Common patterns

Happy path

pending → accepted → in_progress → review → approved ✅

The standard flow: Captain creates, agent accepts, works on it, submits for review, Captain approves.

Blocked and unblocked

in_progress → blocked (notes: "Waiting for SS2 setup")
             → in_progress (notes: "SS2 online, resuming")
             → review → approved ✅

Agent hits a dependency, blocks the WO with explanation, resumes when unblocked.

Rejected and revised

in_progress → review → rejected (review_notes: "Accuracy below 90%")
             → in_progress (fix issues)
             → review → approved ✅

Captain rejects, agent fixes, resubmits. The full cycle is visible in transition history.

Cancelled

pending → cancelled (notes: "Requirements changed, no longer needed")

Captain-only action. The WO is permanently closed.

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Related pages

Page	Relationship
Work Order API	Full API reference for WO tools
HITL/HOTL	Decision boundaries — when Captain review is required
Company Constitution	§3 — WOs as the only task channel
Dispatch Engine	Execute WOs with different AI engines