Approval statuses explained

Almost every why-does-this-page-say-that question comes down to one thing: there are two different sets of statuses in Capable Approval, and they are easy to mix up.

An approval has one overall status. Each person on it has their own. The overall one is worked out from the individual ones, so if the overall status surprises you, look at the people first.

#What each person is doing

Everyone on the approver list is in exactly one of these at any moment.

Status	Meaning	Counts toward the decision
IN REVIEW	Asked, and has not answered yet.	No
APPROVED	Answered approve.	Yes, toward minimum approvers.
REJECTED	Answered reject.	Yes, toward minimum rejections.
COMMENTED	Left a comment without approving or rejecting.	No

Commented is the one to watch. It takes someone out of the waiting list, so the request stops looking like it needs them, but it moves neither score. An approval where everybody only commented will never complete, and never expire either.

#What the page as a whole is doing

Status	When you see it
IN REVIEW	Neither threshold has been reached yet.
APPROVED	Approvals have reached the minimum approvers.
REJECTED	Rejections have reached the minimum rejections.
EXPIRED	A completed approval whose deadline has passed. See Expiry and re-approval.

Rejection is tested first. If both thresholds are somehow reached at the same instant, the page reads as rejected. Safety wins the tie.

#The label under the page title

The byline is a compressed version of the same information, so you can tell where a page stands without opening anything.

Byline label	Meaning
`In Review (2/3)`	Two people have approved, three are needed.
`In Review with comments`	Same, and at least one person has commented rather than answered.
`Approved` or `Rejected`	The decision is made.
`Syncing` or `Repair needed`	Not a status at all. The cached summary has drifted from the record. See Common questions.

#Record states, which are different again

Underneath the status, every approval record has a lifecycle state. You will only meet these in the history view and in exports, and they are the reason old decisions never disappear.

State	Meaning
Active	The current approval for the current page version.
Expired	Completed, then passed its deadline and was reset.
Superseded	The page was edited, so a newer version has its own approval.
Removed	The approval was withdrawn. See Remove or restart an approval.

#A few things that catch people out

A per-person status and the overall status can disagree and both be right. Three people approved, one still in review, minimum of three: the page is approved.
Commented is not a softer version of rejected. It stops nothing and starts nothing.
Superseded records are never deleted, which is what makes the compliance story hold up.
Every status here is searchable, so you can build a report of everything in review. See Search and reporting.

How approvals work

How the overall status is worked out.

Respond to a request

The three answers, and what each one does.

Expiry and re-approval

How a page moves back to in review.

View approval history

Every answer anyone ever gave, in order.

Common questions

Syncing, Repair needed, and stuck requests.

Search and reporting

Turn these statuses into a live report.

Every label on the page, decoded. No more guessing.