---
id: RT-GATE-13
family: RT-GATE
level: extended
profiles: [runtime]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/rt-gate/rt-gate-13
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# RT-GATE-13 — A gate question belongs to the initiator, and an ownerless one is findable

*RT-GATE (Part II) · level: extended · profiles: runtime · added in 1.0*

A question assigned to whoever happened to persist it (a background worker with no identity) matches nobody's inbox and is never answered. A run with no initiator at all needs somewhere for its question to land.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. A gate interrupt is assigned to the run's initiator (the owner of the job, as stamped when the run was launched) and never to whichever identity happens to persist it.
>
> 2. A run with no initiator, such as one launched by a schedule, a webhook or an anonymous trigger, raises its question unassigned.
>
> 3. Unassigned gate questions are visible to holders of the authority to resolve any interrupt; this is the only relaxation of the inbox's scoping to the owning identity, and it covers unassigned gate questions only.
>
> 4. An assigned question stays scoped to its owner whatever authority the viewer holds (being able to resolve any interrupt grants resolution, not a merged inbox), and an unassigned question that is not a gate question stays invisible.
>
> 5. Where nobody attends an unassigned gate question it expires and the run is cancelled (RT-GATE-1, INT-18): fail closed, never silently approved.

## Related rules

- Names: INT-18, RT-GATE-1

---

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.