Validation

Publishing fails unless all of these hold:

1. Exactly one start step exists and has an outgoing transition.
2. At least one end step exists.
3. Every transition's sourceStepId and targetStepId reference an existing step.
4. No orphans: every non-start step is the target of at least one transition.
5. Every instruction step has a non-empty prompt.
6. Every shell step has a non-empty command.
7. Every decision step has at least one branch.
8. Every review step has a non-empty prompt and outgoing transitions labelled APPROVED and REVISE.
9. Every sub_workflow and execute_task_list target exists and is published — publish children before parents.
10. No sub_workflow recursion cycles.

Not validated — enforced at runtime

These fail the instance when reached, not the publish. Check them yourself:

• get_next_task has both HAS_TASK and EMPTY labelled transitions.
• Decision branch transitionIds point at real outgoing transitions.
• Step names are unique and contain no dots.
• Template paths match the producing step's name exactly.

Pre-publish checklist

• Every step reachable; every step except decision, get_next_task and review has exactly one outgoing transition.
• Every decision: branches map to real transitions, one isDefault, allowSummaryFallback: false, the prompt lists the allowed labels.
• Every prompt ends with an explicit output contract.
• Every loop terminates.
• Children published before parents.