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feat(approvals): expression approvers, empty-slate policy, decision outputs (#3447 P2) - #3532
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…utputs (#3447 P2) Three declarative capabilities that complete dynamic approver routing: - `expression` approvers: CEL resolved at node entry over a CLOSED root set — current.* (live record), trigger.* (submit snapshot), vars.* (flow variables). `record`/bare fields are rejected before evaluation with errors that prescribe the correct spelling (the runtime env would resolve them as dyn → null → a silently-empty slate). resolveAs re-expands ids through the existing graph lookups; per_group keys each intermediate value as its own sign-off group. Missing key = loud error; only present-but-empty counts as an empty slate. - onEmptyApprovers: admin_rescue (default, = #3424) | fail | auto_approve. Auto-approve rides NodeExecutionResult.branchLabel, which existed but was never consumed on the synchronous completion path — the engine now honours it (unlabelled traversal would walk approve AND reject). - decisionOutputs: author-declared keys a decision may carry; accepted outputs resume as <nodeId>.<key> variables, so a later node's expression reads vars.<nodeId>.picked_departments — "previous approver picks the next step's approvers" with no record-field detour. Undeclared keys reject; decision/requestId reserved. Multi-approver tallies now always pin to the open-time snapshot (unanimous previously re-resolved per decision, which cannot work for expressions and could drift for live fields). collectCelRootIdentifiers is exported from @objectstack/formula and shared by the lint rules and the runtime pre-check so they can never drift. Resolution inputs are audited as __resolvedFrom on the request snapshot. Three new lint rules; SKILL.md and the approvals guide document the time-word contract (current/trigger/vars vs condition record/previous vs hook ctx). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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📓 Docs Drift CheckThis PR changes 6 package(s): 107 hand-written doc(s) reference the affected code and may need an implementation-accuracy re-verification:
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This was referenced Jul 27, 2026
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What
P2 of #3447 (design finalized in this comment after maintainer review): three declarative capabilities that complete dynamic approver routing on approval nodes. P1 (#3495, merged) made
field/managerapprovers read live data; this adds the general mechanism.1.
expressionapprovers — resolve WHO at node entry, by CELcurrent.*(live record at node entry),trigger.*(submit-time snapshot),vars.*(flow variables incl. node outputs). Backed by industry naming: ServiceNowcurrent, ServiceNow FDtrigger.record/ Power AutomatetriggerBody(), BPMN process variables.record/ bare fields rejected BEFORE evaluation. Everywhere elserecordmeans "the record at event time" (conditions: trigger snapshot; hooks: write payload) — ambiguous at an approval node, so the expression must say which time. The CEL env resolves unknown roots asdyn→null, which would produce a silently-empty slate; the AST pre-check fails the node loudly instead, with errors that prescribecurrent.<field>/trigger.<field>— written for the AI author fixing the flow on the next validate pass.resolveAs: 'user'(default)|'department'|'position'|'team're-expands each resolved id through the existing graph lookups. Withbehavior: 'per_group', each intermediate value (each returned department) forms its own sign-off group — dynamic co-sign (会签) in one node.vars.never_writtenthrows); only a present-but-empty value is an empty slate. Guard optional inputs withhas(...).2.
onEmptyApprovers— what an empty slate means (all approver types)admin_rescue(default — request opens for privileged takeover; exactly the #3424 behaviour, zero change for existing flows) |fail(node fails: config bug) |auto_approve(skip the request, continue downapprovewithoutput.autoApproved = true; opt-in because it waves the record through — the safe default is the only option that neither waves through nor kills the run).Auto-approve is powered by honouring
NodeExecutionResult.branchLabelon the synchronous completion path — the field existed ("Used by decision nodes") but was only ever consumed via resume signals; unlabelled traversal would walkapproveANDreject.3. Decision outputs — the previous approver picks the next step's approvers
Screen-node trust model: author declares keys, approvers only fill values. Undeclared keys reject the decision atomically (before any write);
decision/requestIdreserved; outputs land as<nodeId>.<key>(never bare variables, so an approver can't shadow author variables). Engine unchanged —ResumeSignal.outputalready existed. Co-sign votes accumulate onto the snapshot; the finalizing decision hands the merged set to the flow.Load-bearing fix surfaced by the integration test
Unanimous tallies used to re-resolve approvers at every decision against the payload snapshot (back-compat path predating the group snapshot). That can't work for expressions (decide time has no flow variables) and could drift for live fields (open-time slate ≠ decide-time slate). Open now snapshots
__approverGroupsfor every multi-approver behavior; decide always tallies against the open-time slate. Re-resolution survives only for pre-snapshot legacy rows.Authoring safety net (AI-first)
os lintrules:approval-expression-invalid(error: parse failure / illegal root, same helper as the runtime so they can never drift),approval-expression-no-empty-policy(info nudge),approval-decision-outputs-reserved(error).collectCelRootIdentifiersexported from@objectstack/formula— single implementation consumed by lint + runtime pre-check.__resolvedFromaudits the resolution INPUT (live field value / expression intermediates) next to the already-persisted result, so "why these people" stays answerable.objectstack-automation) +content/docs/automation/approvals.mdx: new Dynamic approvers section, result contract, the missing-vs-empty distinction, end-to-end example, and a time-word cheat sheet across surfaces (flowrecord/previousvs hookctx.record/ctx.previousvs approvalcurrent/trigger/vars).Tests
__resolvedFrom, missing-key loudness, 3 empty policies, 5 decision-output cases, and 4 end-to-end integration tests on a real AutomationEngine — including the issue's headline two-stage "lead picks co-signers" flow and the auto-approve branch wiring).collectCelRootIdentifiers), lint 22 (8 new), service-automation 360 (zero regressions on the branchLabel wiring), rest 372.gen:schema/gen:docs/gen:openapi/gen:api-surface/gen:skill-refs/gen:skill-docs); all six packages build with DTS.Not in this PR
P3 (programmatic resolver hook — Camunda TaskListener analog, routed to the hook surface per ADR-0077) and the objectui follow-ups (expression editor in Studio, decision-output form on the approval card — the card renders from
decisionOutputsdeclarations) tracked on #3447.Closes#3447.
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