---
id: W-T
family: GR-VAL
level: extended
profiles: [storage-api, editor-client]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/gr-val/w-t
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# W-T — An edge leaving a terminal node warns

*GR-VAL (Part I) · level: extended · profiles: storage-api, editor-client · added in 1.0*

A terminal node ends the run, so nothing downstream of it will execute. The edge is legal (the author may be mid-edit), but it is almost certainly not what they meant.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. Every edge whose source node is a terminal node yields one non-blocking warning at `edge.{index}`, naming the terminal source and the target it leads to.
>
> 2. A terminal node with several outgoing edges therefore produces one warning per edge, and the workflow stays valid.
>
> 3. Only sources are inspected, so a workflow with no edges looks nothing up, and the target's existence is not checked here: an edge from a terminal node to a deleted node produces both this warning and R8's missing-target error.
>
> 4. An edge whose source is itself dangling produces no warning; R8 owns that.


## What it means

The count is per edge, not per terminal node: a terminal node with several
outgoing edges earns one warning for each of them, not one warning naming the
node once. None of them blocks the save — the workflow stays valid, because
the author may simply be mid-edit — and the check only ever looks at an
edge's source. A dangling source produces no warning here at all; that
belongs to R8.

## Example

A terminal node wired to two other nodes:

```json title="Edges leaving the same terminal node" verdict="checked"
[
  { "id": "e1", "source": "stop1", "target": "after1" },
  { "id": "e2", "source": "stop1", "target": "after2" }
]
```

```json title="The locators of the two warnings this produces" verdict="one each"
["edge.0", "edge.1"]
```

The workflow is still reported valid; a save of it would go through with
every one of these warnings attached.

## Related rules

- Names: R8.a, R8.b

---

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.