Reference and Concepts

Lifecycle reference

Every Gleo entity's status / lifecycle state machine in one place.

The four entities that have meaningful lifecycles in Gleo — Playbook Templates, Playbooks, Sessions, and Artefacts — each have their own state machine. This page is the single look-up.

Templates and Playbooks have separate lifecycles. "Publish template" makes a new version of a Playbook Template available to instantiate. "Publish session" makes a session live for participants. The two actions don't substitute for each other — see Publishing a session if you're trying to figure out which one you need.

Playbook Template

The simplest of the four. Templates flip between draft and published; publishing creates a new version.

stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Draft Draft --> Published: Publish (new version) Published --> Draft: Edit (creates next draft) Published --> [*]: Archive
Transition Trigger Who can do it Notes
[*] → Draft Create a new template in Studio Facilitator, Owner / Admin Initial state for any new template.
Draft → Published Click Publish Facilitator, Owner / Admin Creates a new immutable version. Existing playbooks pinned to older versions are unaffected.
Published → Draft Edit a published template Facilitator, Owner / Admin Opens the next draft. The previously published version remains intact and instantiable.
Published → Archive Archive in template settings Owner / Admin Removes the template from the Marketplace and the new-playbook picker. Existing playbooks continue to run.

For the editor flow, see Drafts vs publishing.

Playbook (runtime)

The runtime lifecycle. A Playbook is created in Planning, transitions to Active when work is underway, and ends in Completed (or Cancelled).

stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Planning Planning --> Active: Start Active --> Completed: Finish Active --> Cancelled: Cancel Completed --> Active: Reopen Cancelled --> Active: Reopen
Transition Trigger Who can do it Notes
[*] → Planning Instantiate from a published template Facilitator Picks the template version; this is the version the Playbook stays pinned to.
Planning → Active First scheduled session is published, or Start is clicked manually Facilitator Members get notified that the playbook is live.
Active → Completed All sessions complete, or Finish is clicked manually Facilitator, Owner / Admin Tasks and Questions tabs go read-only; artefacts are preserved.
Active → Cancelled Cancel from Tools tab Facilitator, Owner / Admin Use when the engagement won't continue. Reversible.
Completed / Cancelled → Active Reopen Facilitator, Owner / Admin Returns the Playbook to running state with all data intact.

The Tools tab is the canonical surface for these lifecycle actions; see Tools tab and the playbook lifecycle.

Session

Sessions move through four named states. Most users only ever see Scheduled → Active → Completed.

stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Draft Draft --> Scheduled: Publish Scheduled --> Active: Start time reached / Open Active --> Completed: End / Wrap Scheduled --> Draft: Unpublish
Transition Trigger Who can do it Notes
[*] → Draft Create a new session (ad-hoc or from a template) Facilitator Visible only to facilitators. Prep is not yet sent.
Draft → Scheduled Click Publish Facilitator Sends prep links, creates or updates the calendar event (if Calendar is connected), notifies attendees.
Scheduled → Active Reach the scheduled start time, or facilitator opens the session early Facilitator The session is now the live one in the playbook.
Active → Completed Wrap the session, or auto-close after end time Facilitator Locks live editing; responses become historical.
Scheduled → Draft Unpublish Facilitator Use to retract a session before participants engage with prep.

For the publish flow specifically, see Publishing a session.

Artefact

Artefacts have the longest lifecycle in Gleo because they're long-lived references that evolve over many sessions.

stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Draft Draft --> Proposed: Propose Proposed --> Confirmed: Confirm Confirmed --> Active: Activate Active --> Superseded: Replaced by newer artefact Active --> Archived: Archive Superseded --> Archived: Archive Proposed --> Draft: Withdraw
Transition Trigger Who can do it Notes
[*] → Draft Create a new artefact Facilitator, Participant Only the author can see it at this stage.
Draft → Proposed Propose for the playbook / company Facilitator, Participant Surfaces in the artefacts library for review.
Proposed → Confirmed Confirm in review Facilitator, Owner / Admin Marks the artefact as agreed.
Confirmed → Active Activate / pin Facilitator, Owner / Admin Becomes a current reference for the playbook (or company).
Active → Superseded New artefact replaces it System / Facilitator Auto-set when a successor artefact is activated; preserves history.
Active / Superseded → Archived Archive Owner / Admin Hidden from default views; preserved for audit.
Proposed → Draft Withdraw Original author Returns to private draft.

For artefact-specific flows, see Statuses and versioning.

How the lifecycles relate

These four lifecycles are independent but interact at known points:

  • Publishing a template creates a new version, which can then be instantiated into a Playbook.
  • Publishing the first session of a Planning Playbook typically transitions that Playbook to Active.
  • Completing the last scheduled session does not automatically Complete the Playbook — that's a deliberate human decision (use the Tools tab).
  • Artefacts outlive sessions and often outlive playbooks; archiving a Playbook does not archive its artefacts.

Related pages

Action Drafts vs publishing Action Tools tab and the playbook lifecycle Action Publishing a session