Pipeline model

A pipeline is an authored directed graph. Its public model contains pipeline metadata, actions, and connections.

Actions

Each action has:

Action code: Selects an implementation from the action catalog, such as GIT_CLONE.
Reference name: Stable pipeline-local identifier, such as clone or docker_build_1.
Parameters: Configuration supplied by the user and resolved at execution time.
Outputs: Named values exported into the execution context.

The reference name, not the display label, forms output expressions.

Connections

A connection from build to image means that image depends on build. Screen position does not affect execution order.

Fan-out: One completed action enables multiple independent branches.
Join: An action with multiple incoming dependencies waits for all of them.

clone -> build -> [image, checksum] -> publish

Execution compilation

The authored graph is compiled to an internal execution network before it is sent to the runtime. This provides deterministic ordering, concurrency, and join semantics while keeping the public API focused on actions and connections.

Internal Petri-net structures are not part of the editor, ICE source, or HTTP API.