The tracker is forgiving - i.e. although there is a state diagram, it isn't rigidly enforced. That allows you to both make mistakes (move a draft into an illogical state) and correct them. More important, it allows the IESG to be flexible when that is useful.
The state diagram (see below) is currently incomplete (for example, it doesn't cover RFC Editor submissions) but is a good general guide.
The state table should also be taken with a grain or two of salt, but also offers useful general guidance.
Note that the available states are expected to be expanded when the tracker is extended to cover PROTO shepherding as well as AD shepherding.
State Diagram
https://static.ietf.org/dt/12.33.0/ietf/images/iesg-draft-state-diagram.png
The content of this page was last updated on 2006-04-26. It was migrated from the old Trac wiki on 2023-02-17.
