---
id: MAN-14
family: GR-MAN
level: extended
profiles: [storage-api]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/gr-man/man-14
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# MAN-14 — Strictness polices the caller, never the stored manifest

*GR-MAN (Part I) · level: extended · profiles: storage-api · added in 1.0*

A caller can fix the key they sent. They cannot fix a manifest entry someone else stored, so failing their launch over it helps nobody.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. A malformed manifest entry (one missing a `name`, a `node_id` or a `port`, or carrying an empty one) is dropped with a warning while resolving launch inputs, including where undeclared caller keys are refused.
>
> 2. Strictness applies to what the caller supplied, not to what the workflow stored.


## What it means

MAN-13 refuses a caller for sending a key the manifest never declared, and it
is tempting to read strictness as one blanket setting: reject anything the
resolution step cannot make sense of. This rule draws the line strictness is
not allowed to cross. A malformed manifest entry — one an author (or an
earlier version of the workflow) left with a missing or empty `name`,
`node_id` or `port` — is not the caller's mistake, and refusing the caller's
launch over it fixes nothing: the caller cannot edit a manifest they do not
own. So a launch that is otherwise as strict as it gets still drops a broken
entry with a warning and keeps resolving everything else, exactly as a
lenient resolution would.

## Example

The workflow's manifest entry for `message` names a node, `deleted.1`, no
longer in the graph.

```json title="A value sent for a declared input whose target node is gone" verdict="dropped"
{ "message": "hello" }
```

The same happens when an entry's `node_id` or `port` is empty outright:

```json title="Values sent for two entries with an empty node id and an empty port" verdict="dropped"
{ "a": 1, "b": 2 }
```

Neither launch is refused; both drop the broken entry's value and resolve
whatever else the manifest can still make sense of.

## Related rules

- Names: MAN-8, MAN-13
- Referenced by: MAN-8, MAN-13

---

Rule identifiers are permanent and are never renumbered. This specification carries
no implementation status: each implementation publishes its own standing against
these rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.