Gates

A gate is a resolvable node for a decision or prerequisite that is not implementation work. Its purpose can describe a decision, approval, external dependency, or research. A gate has a title and body like a task, belongs to an initiative, and can block tasks through a BLOCKS edge.

Gate statesCopy Anchor Link

A gate does not become a ready task and cannot be claimed with take. An open gate is visible in the status view and can be resolved directly. A task that has an incoming edge from an open gate is derived as blocked.

Resolving a gateCopy Anchor Link

Resolution records both the selected choice and the explanatory rationale:

climier add-gate security-review \
  --initiative publishing \
  --title "Choose the security review outcome" \
  --body "Confirm whether the release may proceed." \
  --purpose approval \
  --as alice

climier add-task publish-docs \
  --initiative publishing \
  --title "Publish documentation" \
  --body "Publish the approved documentation." \
  --acceptance "Readers can access the published documentation." \
  --blocked-by security-review \
  --as alice

climier resolve security-review \
  --choice approved \
  --rationale "The review found no release-blocking issue." \
  --as alice

The resolution changes the gate to resolved. A subsequent climier context publish-docs shows its blocker as satisfied and derives the task as ready. The command returns the gate and the dependents whose readiness changed, so the transition is observable without guessing from the title.

Resolving an already resolved gate is rejected. To correct an accepted decision, reopen it with a reason and resolve it again with a new choice and rationale:

climier reopen security-review \
  --reason "The review scope changed." \
  --as alice

Reopening removes the stored resolution and makes dependent tasks blocked again until the gate is resolved.

Replacing a gateCopy Anchor Link

When the question changes, create a successor gate with --supersedes. Climier marks the old gate as superseded and rewires its incoming blocking relationships to the replacement. A superseded gate is not automatically satisfied: its chain must end at a resolved successor. This prevents replacing an unresolved approval from silently unblocking work.

climier add-gate security-review-v2 \
  --initiative publishing \
  --title "Reassess the security review" \
  --body "Use the updated release scope." \
  --purpose approval \
  --supersedes security-review \
  --as alice

See Tasks for the other side of the dependency and Edges and derived status for the canonical edge direction.