> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.fastn.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.fastn.ai/build/workflows/lifecycle.md).

# Lifecycle

How a workflow goes from draft to deployed, review gates, and code-off workspaces.

```
Create → Save (draft) → Publish (snapshot) → Deploy (to an environment)
```

| Stage       | Effect                                                               |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Save**    | Persists the draft. Nothing goes live.                               |
| **Publish** | Creates v1, v2, … A snapshot, so rollback is deploying an older one. |
| **Deploy**  | The version starts handling real events in that environment.         |

An environment can be marked **Requires review**. Promoting to one of those opens a pull request on the connected GitHub repository instead of deploying straight away: the setting is per environment, and lives on [Environments](/manage/environments.md), which is also where the repository is connected.

### When code editing is switched off

Code editing is a per-workspace setting, and **off in almost every workspace** (it is enabled only for the parent organisation. Where it is off, a banner says so, and the editor simply has no code column: workflows are generated and updated by the AI builder, and you change behaviour by talking to the [agent](/build/agent.md) rather than editing the file. Everything else is unchanged), you still test, wire connectors, edit the contract, publish and deploy, and the runtime surface is identical. It can be switched on if you want to write workflow code yourself; ask fastn to enable it.


---

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