Status Conditions

status.fields entries accept an optional when: block. The field is written only when all conditions pass. Multiple entries for the same path are evaluated in order — the last one whose conditions pass writes the final value.

This is how Orkestra implements declarative state machines.

Basic state machine

status:
  fields:
    - path: phase
      value: "Pending"
      when:
        - field: status.phase
          operator: notExists    # only on first reconcile

    - path: phase
      value: "Running"
      when:
        - field: status.phase
          equals: "Pending"

    - path: phase
      value: "Succeeded"
      when:
        - field: status.phase
          equals: "Running"
        - field: children.job.status.succeeded
          operator: gt
          value: "0"

    - path: phase
      value: "Failed"
      when:
        - field: children.job.status.failed
          operator: gt
          value: "0"

Transitions:

• First reconcile → Pending (status.phase not yet written)
• While Job runs → stays Running
• Job exits 0 → Succeeded
• Job exits non-zero → Failed (overrides any earlier write in the same cycle)

First-reconcile detection with notExists

notExists passes when a field is absent or empty — which is true on the first reconcile before any status has been set.

- path: phase
  value: "Pending"
  when:
    - field: status.phase
      operator: notExists

On every reconcile after the first, status.phase has a value and this entry is skipped.

Multi-value matching with in

- path: phase
  value: "Running/build"
  when:
    - field: status.phase
      operator: in
      value: "Pending,"     # "Pending" OR "" (first reconcile)

The trailing comma in the value list matches the empty string — covering both the Pending and notExists cases in one entry.

Override semantics

Multiple entries for the same path are evaluated in declaration order. The last one whose conditions pass writes the final value.

Terminal states (Failed, Succeeded) should be declared last so they override in-progress states when conditions are met in the same reconcile cycle.

Complete example output

# kubectl get pipeline build-and-test -o yaml (status excerpt)
status:
  phase: Succeeded
  step: notify
  conditions:
    - type: Ready
      status: "True"
      reason: ReconcileSucceeded

The progression — Pending → Running/build → Running/test → Running/notify → Succeeded — is driven entirely by job completion events and the when: conditions above. No Go code. No phase annotation management.