# PDR 001: Require a deliberate decision to finish decomposed work

- HTML version: https://robbiepalmer.me/projects/work-graph/pdrs/001-require-deliberate-parent-termination
- Project: Work Graph
- Status: Accepted
- Opened: 2026-09-13
- Decided: 2026-09-13

## Context

A work item can gain children after execution reveals more detail. Finishing
the final child proves that the decomposition has no unfinished branch. It does
not prove that the parent's outcome is complete.

The parent may still need synthesis, verification, a handoff note, or evidence
assembled from several children. Automatically completing it would make
decomposition an undeclared completion policy and could hide the remaining
work.

## Decision

Finishing the last direct child removes the child blocker but does not finish
or cancel the parent. Work Graph recomputes the parent's readiness and requires
a worker to claim it before making a deliberate terminal decision.

A release means that the intended outcome succeeded. A cancellation means that
the outcome is no longer wanted. Neither transition is a way to give up a lease
or return unfinished work to the queue.

The worker making the terminal decision must check the parent outcome and its
acceptance criteria. It may use the children's results and evidence, but their
terminal states do not stand in for that judgment.

## Consequences

Some decomposed items need a short final claim even when their children did all
of the implementation. That extra step preserves an accountable decision at
the level where the outcome was requested.

The ready queue may show a parent again after its children finish. Agents must
recognise that as synthesis or completion work rather than assume the graph
duplicated the task.

The product avoids silent completion at the cost of one more transition. A
later automatic completion policy would need its own decision and evidence
rules.

## Evaluation

The rule is working when decomposed work cannot lose parent-level acceptance
criteria, and when a worker can explain who made the final decision and from
which evidence. Revisit it if final parent claims are consistently mechanical
and an explicit policy can prove when no judgment remains.

## Migration note

This record preserves the completion policy first recorded in ADR 005. It keeps
the original date, rationale, and accepted status. ADR 005 now records the
technical separation between work-item lifecycle and lease outcomes. The
migration does not introduce automatic or stricter completion.

## Related records

- Project: [Work Graph](https://robbiepalmer.me/projects/work-graph.md)
- Informed by ADR: [ADR 000: Recursive work-item graph with combined cycle checks](https://robbiepalmer.me/projects/work-graph/adrs/000-flexible-work-item-graph.md)
- Implemented by ADR: [ADR 005: Separate terminal lifecycle from lease outcomes](https://robbiepalmer.me/projects/work-graph/adrs/005-explicit-work-item-termination.md)
- Implemented by ADR: [ADR 009: Immutable observed evidence and completion candidates](https://robbiepalmer.me/projects/work-graph/adrs/009-observed-evidence-before-automatic-release.md)

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