---
id: INT-1
family: RT-INT
level: core
profiles: [runtime]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/rt-int/int-1
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# INT-1 — An interrupt pauses the run and reports itself in full

*RT-INT (Part II) · level: core · profiles: runtime · added in 1.0*

When a node stops to ask a question, the caller gets a complete answer about what happened: which question is outstanding, which run holds it, and everything that finished before it.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. When a node raises an interrupt, its job is marked interrupted and carries the interrupt's identifier, and the run is paused.
>
> 2. The response shape is part of this rule: status `interrupted`, the persisted interrupt's public representation (identifier, node identifier, status) under the response metadata, the run's identifier, and results holding every node that completed before the interrupt.


## What it means

An interrupt is not reported as a bare "paused" flag. The job that raised it
carries the interrupt's own identifier, so a caller reading the job already
knows which question it is waiting on. The response goes further: it hands
back the persisted interrupt's public shape — its identifier, which node
raised it, and its status — under the response metadata, and it hands back
every node that finished before the pause. A caller does not have to make a
second call to learn what already ran.

The results are exactly the completed prefix, no more: a node reached after
the interrupt does not appear at all, not even as an empty placeholder.

## Example

A confirmation node interrupts a three-node run partway through.

```json title="The response to a run that stopped to ask" verdict="interrupted"
{
  "status": "interrupted",
  "results": { "log_before": "…" },
  "metadata": {
    "interrupt": {
      "id": "…",
      "nodeId": "confirm",
      "status": "pending"
    }
  }
}
```

The node after the confirmation is missing from `results` entirely — it never
ran — while the node before it is there in full.

## Related rules

- Names: INT-2, INT-3, INT-22
- Referenced by: INT-2, INT-3, INT-22

---

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.