Lifecycle Principle
The shared lifecycle rules — states, transitions, evidence, actors, and corrections.
Lifecycle principle
Before looking at any specific lifecycle, it helps to know the rules they all share. In O2A a lifecycle is an explicit record of where an object sits in its governed progression and which moves are allowed next. The word "lifecycle" is never left unqualified — Contracts, Milestones, Configuration Artifacts, Nodes, and Offerings each have their own — and a transition can demand evidence, an authorized actor, or downstream effects before it is allowed.
How It Works
Each lifecycle family is kept separate on purpose: contract lifecycle, milestone lifecycle, configuration-artifact governance lifecycle, and node/unit lifecycle do not share states or drive each other. A transition fires only on an explicit event, and that event can carry conditions — required evidence, a required authorized actor, or a triggered downstream behaviour. Past facts are not edited in place; an error is resolved through an explicit correction so the original record and its fix both remain visible.
Statements
The following statements fix the shared lifecycle rules precisely.
- A lifecycle makes state transitions explicit.
- A lifecycle state records where an object sits in its governed progression.
- A lifecycle transition can require evidence.
- A lifecycle transition can require an authorized actor.
- A lifecycle transition can trigger downstream behaviour.
- A historical fact is corrected through an explicit correction.
Why It Matters
These shared rules are what let the individual lifecycles stay clean. Because a transition is explicit, the system can require proof and authorization at the exact moment state changes, and because history is never silently mutated, a mistake is fixed by recording a deliberate correction rather than rewriting the past. That keeps every state machine auditable.
Related
- Lifecycles overview — index of every lifecycle in the standard, with deep links into each entity's lifecycle section.
- Contract
- Milestone
- Configuration Artifact
- Node
- Offering