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Series Lifecycle States

Table of Contents

Every series is in exactly one of six states. Queue shows it, the entry card shows it, and it determines which buttons you get.

The Six States #

State Meaning Runs automatically?
scheduled Waiting for its target; available when due Yes
processing Owned by an atomic, per-request claim right now In progress
paused Intentionally stopped, with a reason No
failed Automatic attempts stopped at the failure threshold No
completed Its limit was reached, or its parent/feed no longer exists No
canceled Explicitly ended, or ended because its parent was trashed or deleted No

How States Change #

                    ┌──────────── Resume ────────────┐
                    │                                │
   start  →  scheduled  ⇄  processing  →  scheduled  │
                 │  │                                │
          Pause  │  └── threshold reached ──→  failed
                 ▼                                   │
              paused ──────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 └── Cancel / parent trashed ──→  canceled
                                    limit reached ──→  completed

State by State #

scheduled #

The normal, healthy state. The series holds a future target and the worker will claim it when due.

Available: Run Next Submission Now, Pause, Change next submission, Cancel (Premium), history, diagnostics. Plus Retry, if an issue is open.

A series can be scheduled and still need attention: an issue is open, but the next automatic retry is still on the calendar. That’s not a contradiction.

processing #

A worker pass or a manual action holds an exclusive claim. Nothing else can submit the same series at the same time.

  • Claims older than 30 minutes are recoverable, so an interrupted request can’t strand a series forever.
  • Don’t click Run repeatedly at a locked series — the interface will say it’s locked rather than pretending to queue anything.

paused #

Stopped on purpose, with a recorded reason:

Reason Set by Cleared by
user Somebody clicking Pause An explicit Resume
feed_inactive Deactivating the feed Reactivating the feed

Reactivating a feed resumes only feed_inactive series. A user pause survives it, deliberately.

failed #

Consecutive failures reached the threshold — 3 by default. Automatic attempts stop; progress and history are preserved.

Getting out: fix the cause, then Retry Failed Submission (a success resolves the issue and resets the count) or Resume (reopens automatic attempts).

completed #

Either the limit was reached, or a required parent or feed no longer exists.

Attempts and child-entry audit links are retained. Start Series From Now begins a fresh series.

canceled #

Ended by an administrator, or automatically when the parent entry was trashed or permanently deleted.

  • Child entries are never deleted by cancelling.
  • Notes and retained attempts stay.
  • A submission already in flight may still finish and be recorded; cancellation only prevents future scheduling.
  • Cancelling requires the Premium plan.

Feed Activation and the Lifecycle #

Feed event Effect
Deactivated Scheduled series are paused as feed_inactive. A claimed series is stopped at the final active-feed guard before submitting.
Reactivated Only feed_inactive series resume. User-paused and failed series do not.
Deleted Its series end.

Both the native Gravity Forms feed toggle and the GravityOps Feeds tab use this same lifecycle — there’s no second, divergent path.

Which Buttons Appear When #

State Run Retry Pause Resume Cancel Change date Start
scheduled ✅ if issue ✅ — ✅ ✅ —
processing — — ✅ — ✅ — —
paused — — — ✅ ✅ ✅ —
failed — ✅ — ✅ ✅ ✅ —
completed — — — — — — ✅
canceled — — — — — — ✅

Run, Retry and Resume additionally require the feed to be active. Cancel requires the Premium plan. A series blocked pending review after a storage failure shows no submission buttons at all until the records are reviewed — Cancel stays available.

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