Execution States — Node Lifecycle

eExecutionState Enum

State	Meaning	Terminal?
`Idle`	Created but not yet started. The initial value before execution begins.	No
`Running`	Actively executing. Nodes are being dispatched.	No
`Completed`	All nodes finished successfully. The normal success terminal state.	Yes
`Failed`	An unrecoverable error occurred. Retries (if any) were exhausted.	Yes
`Cancelled`	The CancellationToken was signalled, or a WorkflowControl node issued an abort signal.	Yes
`Paused`	Execution is durably suspended. A node returned "waiting" or "pending".	No — can resume

State Machine Diagram

stateDiagram-v2 direction LR [*] --> Running : Start Running --> Completed : Success Running --> Failed : Error Running --> Cancelled : Abort / Token Running --> Paused : Waiting / Pending Paused --> Running : ContinueAsync Completed --> [*] Failed --> [*] Cancelled --> [*]

State Transitions by Layer

Thread State Transitions

Idle    → Running   (on ExecuteProcessThreadAsync entry)

Running → Completed  (loop exits with stack empty, no errors)
Running → Failed     (node threw, retries exhausted, or thread exception)
Running → Cancelled  (CancellationToken signalled or AbortSignal set)
Running → Paused     (node returned "waiting"/"pending", or pause API called)

Paused  → Running   (on ContinueAsync resume)

Process State Transitions

Running → Completed  (all threads completed)
Running → Failed     (any thread failed — stops processing remaining threads)
Running → Cancelled  (CancellationToken signalled mid-thread-loop)
Running → Paused     (pause signal received between threads)

Node Stage Enum (eNodeStage)

Below the eExecutionState, individual node execution progress is tracked through eNodeStage. Each stage transition is reported via the progress event system and visible in the Studio UI.

Stage	When fired
`Initiated`	Execution has started, before OnEntry
`Entry`	OnEntry completed
`EntryValidate`	OnEntryValidate completed
`PreValidationGuardRails`	OnPreValidationGuardRails completed
`PreProcess`	OnPreProcess completed
`Process`	OnProcess completed
`PostProcess`	OnPostProcess completed
`PostValidationGuardRails`	OnPostValidationGuardRails completed
`Exit`	OnExit completed
`Completed`	Result.IsSuccess == true — node finished successfully
`Error`	Result.IsSuccess == false — node reported failure

ExecutionStatusID Constants

When thread executions are persisted to the database, the state enum is mapped to integer status IDs via ExecutionConstants.ExecutionStatusId:

Constant	Maps from
`Completed`	`eExecutionState.Completed`
`Failed`	`eExecutionState.Failed`
`Cancelled`	`eExecutionState.Cancelled`
`Paused`	`eExecutionState.Paused`
`Running`	`eExecutionState.Running`

Paused is not Failed A paused execution is healthy — it is waiting for an external event. Treat it like a running execution that is temporarily sleeping. Only Failed and Cancelled indicate that something went wrong.

Suspension & Resume Next: Output Routing