Process List - Design decisions

What is an ADR?

We use the ADR (Architecture Decision Record) to structure design decision documentation. Each ADR covers three things: the context that prompted the decision, the decision itself, and its consequences — including trade-offs and any open questions.

ADR 001 - Show an error or action-needed state as a status on an existing step

• Decision date: September 11, 2026

Context

Request #6971 asked for an error status on the Process List. A Process List describes the steps in a process. An error or action-needed state describes the status of a step, not a step of its own.

va-process-list-item supports only the checkmark, active, and pending statuses, with custom statusText. For the form detail action-needed state, the team chose to drop the Process List and keep the status.

Decision

The Process List doesn’t get an error status or an error step. An error or action-needed state is a status applied to an existing step, so the numbered steps keep describing what happens. Alerts can go in Process List item slots. If there’s no real process to show, a Process List may not be the right element.

Consequences

Positive:

• Matches the current component API.
• The steps keep describing the process.

Negative / watch items:

• Teams that need to show an error or action-needed state use a status on an existing step or an alert in the item slot.
• Where there’s no real process, teams use another element.