Lifecycle defines how Attestor-owned objects move through governed existence: preparation, canonical Creation, review, active use, correction, supersession, withdrawal, and retirement.
Lifecycle preserves continuity without confusing current state with historical state. An Attestation or Trust Statement may cease to be current while remaining permanently identifiable, attributable, and traceable.
Lifecycle governs the institutional existence of Attestor-owned objects from preparation through canonical use and eventual historical disposition. It keeps current state distinguishable from prior state without destroying identity, provenance, or lineage.
draft is the pre-active governed state used while an Attestation or Trust Statement is being prepared, reviewed, or completed. A draft is not yet an active Attestor representation and must not be presented as though it were.
active means the Attestor-owned object is the current governed representation within its scope. Active does not mean published, favorable, permanently correct, or immune from later review.
superseded means a newer governed object or version has replaced the prior object as the current representation for the applicable scope. The superseded object remains historically identifiable and traceable.
withdrawn means Attestor has affirmatively removed the object from current institutional reliance because it should no longer function as an active representation. Withdrawal preserves the historical object and the reason/context for the change where material.
retired means the object has reached a terminal non-current state through normal institutional disposition rather than necessarily because it was erroneous. Retirement preserves history while signaling that the object is no longer maintained as current.
Correction is a governed change process, not a lifecycle state. A correction may amend a version, create a successor, or trigger supersession depending on materiality and Versioning rules. The prior state must remain traceable.
Review is a governed lifecycle activity, not a permanent state in the initial controlled vocabulary. Review may confirm continued active status or lead to correction, supersession, withdrawal, retirement, or a new evaluation.
The Controlled Values architecture established five lifecycle states. This page now defines their institutional meaning. Review and correction are governed activities that may cause state transitions; they are not additional lifecycle states in the initial vocabulary.
Canonical Creation is the point at which an Attestor object becomes institutionally recognized and receives its canonical identity. Creation does not require immediate activation or publication. An object may be created in draft state and proceed through governed review before becoming active.
Review determines whether an Attestor-owned object remains suitable for its current lifecycle position. Review may be initial, periodic, event-driven, or triggered by material changes to source state, provenance, authority, scope, evidence, evaluation basis, or related objects.
active is the only initial lifecycle state representing current institutional use. “Inactive” is retained as a descriptive umbrella, not a canonical state value. Superseded, withdrawn, and retired objects are all non-active for different governed reasons and must remain distinguishable.
A correction addresses an error, omission, ambiguity, serialization defect, or other governed defect in an Attestor-owned object. Bounded non-material correction may preserve canonical object identity and version when the applicable Versioning determination permits it. A material change to the Attestation assertion or Trust Statement conclusion requires treatment under the applicable new-object and supersession rules. Materiality and version consequences must be explicitly governed rather than inferred from the existence of a correction alone.
Withdrawal and retirement are both non-current states but communicate different institutional meanings. Withdrawal is an affirmative decision that the object should no longer be relied upon as current. Retirement is normal terminal disposition when an object no longer needs to remain current or maintained.
Supersession preserves continuity when a newer governed object replaces an earlier one as the current representation. The successor must explicitly relate to the prior object, and the prior object remains resolvable as historical state.
Lifecycle review may be triggered when information material to an Attestation or Trust Statement changes. The trigger does not predetermine the resulting state; it requires governed review under applicable rules.
Lifecycle state and publication state remain independent dimensions. An active object may be unpublished, and a previously published object may later become superseded, withdrawn, or retired while its historical public representation remains governed according to Publication architecture.
Lifecycle changes must preserve enough history to reconstruct the governed sequence of material states. Attestor should be able to distinguish what was current, what changed, why the change occurred where material, and which object or version became current afterward.
The first controlled production operation exercised canonical Creation and lifecycle activation as separate governed acts for both ATT-2026-0001 and TRST-2026-0001. Each object was canonically created as Draft · Unpublished · V1.0, completed governed Validation, Review, and Conformance, and was then separately authorized to transition from draft to active.
Publication was authorized only after lifecycle activation through separate publication decisions. The production sequence therefore demonstrated the standing distinction: Canonical Creation ≠ Lifecycle Activation ≠ Publication.
The first production operation also exercised governed correction before final publication. Relationship serialization was corrected while preserving the canonical ATT and TRST identities, substantive assertion and conclusion, and historical representations. The correction was determined to be non-material to canonical meaning and therefore remained V1.0 for this bounded operation.
This production decision does not establish that every correction preserves version or identity. Future corrections remain subject to materiality, Versioning, correction, and supersession rules.
Lifecycle state describes institutional status over time. It does not independently establish truth, evidence sufficiency, evaluation outcome, publication, validation, conformance, or authority.
The Lifecycle architecture is established and has been exercised in production. The first controlled operation demonstrated canonical Creation in draft, governed lifecycle activation to active, independence from Publication, preservation of canonical identity and version through activation, and governed correction with historical preservation.
Production proof demonstrates lifecycle capability; it does not imply that every future object will become active, that every correction is non-material, or that supersession, withdrawal, and retirement have already been exercised. Each future transition remains a separate governed institutional act.
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