Flow — Document lifecycle · Transient parse failure

Summary

The parser API was down or timed out; the file is valid so the doc sits at parse_pending and the user can Sync to retry.

Audience

end-user

Entry

Document marked parse_pending from the document-lifecycle-ingest branch or document-lifecycle-upgrade-backfill.

Steps

#	Step	Surface	Notes
1	Document is parse_pending	review-document	Inbox shows Sync button + "Parser temporarily unavailable"
2a	User taps Sync (rescanDocument)	pillar-inbox	Parser retries; see 2026-05-31-hybrid-parsing-haiku-fallback
2b	User re-uploads a fresh copy	inbox-uploading	Storage trigger re-runs the paid branch of document-lifecycle-ingest
3a	Parsed OK	review-document	→ unreviewed — see document-lifecycle-standard-review
3b	Still transient	review-document	Stays parse_pending; user can Sync again later
3c	Terminal format error revealed	review-document-failed	→ rejected_format (terminal)

Exit

Document parses successfully and moves to unreviewed.

Escapes

• Confirm gate: parse_pending is NOT confirmable — the fields are absent. Confirm button hidden. See the shared rule in document-lifecycle-ingest.
• Repeated transient failures: ops surfaces in admin-parser-failures.
• Terminal reveal on retry: review-document-failed takes over; user re-exports per the terminal-states table in document-lifecycle-ingest.

Sources

• .context/wiki/flows/* § "Flow 12 — Document lifecycle state machine" · "E. Transient parse failure"