---
id: STORE-13
family: GR-STORE
level: extended
profiles: [storage-api, runtime]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/gr-store/store-13
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# STORE-13 — One name per concept for a node's type

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

A node has a type it is an instance of and a type it is drawn as. They are different things, and a payload that spells both the same way cannot be read without knowing who wrote it.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. A node type's identifier is `node_type_id` wherever it appears in a payload: job metadata, node metadata, a serialised node execution result, a node-status broadcast, a persisted session message.
>
> 2. A node's visual type is `visual_type` in a per-node snapshot payload.
>
> 3. The bare key `node_type` must not be written anywhere.
>
> 4. A node's own identifier is `node_id` and is unaffected.


## What it means

A node has two identities that a payload can be forgiven for confusing: the
type it is an *instance* of, and the type it is *drawn as* in an editor.
The first is `node_type_id`; the second is `visual_type`. A bare `node_type`
key could carry either meaning, and a reader would have no way to tell which
without already knowing which producer wrote it. The rule gives each concept
its own name and forbids the shared one everywhere: job metadata, node
metadata, a serialised node execution result, a node-status broadcast, a
persisted session message, and a per-node snapshot all name the concept they
mean, not the spelling that happens to be shortest.

A node's own identifier, `node_id`, is a third thing again and unaffected by
any of this: it names *which* node, not *what kind*.

## Example

A per-node snapshot spells the node's drawn type `visual_type`; a node
execution result, carried on the same kind of event, spells the same node's
type-it-is-an-instance-of `node_type_id` — two different concepts, on two
different payloads, never the bare key.

```json title="A node snapshot's visual type"
{"nodeStates": {"chat.1": {"metadata": {"visual_type": "terminal", "label": "Chat"}}}}
```

```json title="A node execution result, on the same node"
{"nodeId": "chat.1", "output": { … }, "node_type_id": "chat_output"}
```

## Related rules

- Names: STORE-7, STORE-11
- Referenced by: STORE-7

---

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.