---
title: Process lifecycle
description: The three process states, what FINISHED does and does not mean, and the order of a create.
canonical: https://developer.unico.io/human-plugin/api-reference/process-lifecycle
locale: en
generated_by: markdown-export
---

# Process lifecycle

States, transitions and the order of a create.

## States

| `state` | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `PROCESS_STATE_CREATED` | Not finished. Includes a Journey waiting for the person |
| `PROCESS_STATE_FINISHED` | Has an outcome, **including** a negative revalidation or an inconclusive identification |
| `PROCESS_STATE_FAILED` | Processing failed, the person cancelled, or the create was interrupted |

A capture the person cancels is answered as `PROCESS_STATE_FAILED`.

> **Warning: FINISHED is not "approved"**
>
> Read the outcome in `data`: `humanToken.status`, `liveness.value` and `humanTokenMatch`. A finished revalidation with `humanTokenMatch` other than `"true"` is a finished process that does **not** match.

```mermaid
stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> CREATED: create accepted
  CREATED --> FINISHED: read with an outcome
  CREATED --> FAILED: read with a failure, or interrupted
  FINISHED --> [*]
  FAILED --> [*]
```

Finished and failed are final.

## Order of a create

1. Human Plugin validates the request. Errors here store nothing and send nothing.
2. It stores the process and starts it. This step is not cancelled if your client disconnects, and takes at most 30 seconds.
3. It stores the result, then computes the person's [intelligence](/human-plugin/get-started/intelligence) for `data.ndocs`.

A process is never started twice.

## When the outcome is uncertain

If the process cannot be confirmed in time, Human Plugin stores it as failed and answers `502`. To try again, create a new process with a new `correlationId`.

If the container stops during a create, a later `GET` marks the process failed once the create can no longer be running (about 70 seconds).

See [Errors and retries](/human-plugin/api-reference/errors-and-retries) for retry guidance.