Workbook Lifecycle
Three workbook readiness states — unstamped, stamped-configuring, and operating — each routes to the appropriate experience; promotion is one-way once the workbook is stamped.
Workbook lifecycle management answers a question that most project planning tools ignore: what happens when a user opens a brand new file and starts working before the file is configured? In most tools, the answer is that nothing stops them — they can enter data into an unconfigured template and create a mess that is difficult to untangle later. ProjectXL handles this with a governed lifecycle that routes users to the right experience based on the actual state of the workbook.
Three Readiness States
A blank, unstamped workbook opens to the first-run welcome experience — a surface that explains what the workbook is for and guides the user into the initial setup path. A stamped workbook that is still completing configuration opens to the setup path, where structured prompts guide the user through the remaining configuration steps. A fully operating workbook — one that has been stamped and has all governed tables and seeds in place — opens to the standard shell workspaces where planning, execution, and analysis can begin.
One-Way Promotion
Promotion from one state to the next is one-way. Once a workbook is stamped, it cannot be returned to an unstamped state. Once it is operating, it cannot be returned to configuration. This one-way progression is an integrity guarantee — downstream features that depend on the governed tables being present can rely on that assumption without defensive checks. Problems discovered after promotion surface through the Configuration indicator attention path, which provides specific feedback and remediation guidance without rolling back workbook state.