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AIGP

RFC-012: Artifact Lifecycle Protocol (ALP) — 8. Compensation

AIGP Specification › RFC-012: Artifact Lifecycle Protocol (ALP) › 8. Compensation

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8. Compensation

Every executable artifact MUST have a paired compensation (rollback) artifact. Compensation is the mechanism that ensures failed executions can be reversed.

8.1 Compensation Rules

  1. A compensation artifact MUST be created at the same time as its primary artifact (in the CREATE message).
  2. A compensation artifact follows the same lifecycle as its primary when the primary is promoted, the compensation is promoted alongside it.
  3. A compensation artifact MUST be reviewed and approved as part of the primary’s approval.
  4. Compensation is triggered automatically when an artifact transitions to FAILED.
  5. Compensation execution is itself an ALP-governed operation it produces its own execution record and provenance.

8.2 Compensation Schema

{
  "artifact_id": "art-20260504-001-rollback",
  "artifact_type": "PYTHON_SCRIPT",
  "name": "rollback-remediate-prisma-gaps.py",
  "is_compensation": true,
  "compensates_for": "art-20260504-001",
  "state": "APPROVED",
  "content_ref": {
    "s3_bucket": "run-prj-artifacts",
    "s3_key": "artifacts/art-20260504-001/v1/rollback-remediate-prisma-gaps.py",
    "content_hash": "sha256:f6g7h8i9j0k1..."
  }
}

8.3 Compensation Execution Flow

Primary artifact FAILS




Orchestrator evaluates failure


     Is compensation artifact available and APPROVED?
       YES  Execute compensation artifact
       NO   Alert human operator, halt




Compensation artifact executes


     COMPLETED  Primary marked FAILED (compensated)


     FAILED  CRITICAL ALERT  manual intervention required

8.4 Compensation Execution

async def handle_execution_failure(orchestrator, primary_artifact: dict, failure: dict) -> dict:
    """Handle a failed artifact execution by triggering compensation."""
    comp_id = primary_artifact["compensation_ref"]["artifact_id"]
    comp_artifact = await orchestrator.get_artifact(comp_id)


    if comp_artifact["state"] != "APPROVED":
        await orchestrator.alert(
            severity="CRITICAL",
            message=f"Compensation artifact {comp_id} not in APPROVED state",
            primary_artifact_id=primary_artifact["artifact_id"],
        )
        return {"compensation": "UNAVAILABLE", "requires_manual_intervention": True}


    result = await orchestrator.execute_artifact(comp_artifact, context={
        "compensating_for": primary_artifact["artifact_id"],
        "failure_reason": failure["error"],
        "run_id": failure["run_id"],
    })


    if result["state"] == "COMPLETED":
        return {"compensation": "SUCCEEDED", "rollback_run_id": result["run_id"]}


    await orchestrator.alert(
        severity="CRITICAL",
        message=f"Compensation FAILED for {primary_artifact['artifact_id']}",
        requires_manual_intervention=True,
    )
    return {"compensation": "FAILED", "requires_manual_intervention": True}

← 7. Approval Rules · Section index · 9. Storage →