---
type: Domain Guide
title: State Management Decision Tree
description: Route UI state problems to the smallest ownership or transition contract.
domain: design-engineering
lifecycle: experimental
provenance_kind: local
---
# State Management Decision Tree

## Repository Boundary

This route selects consumer behavior within Design Engineering. It does not choose a global store or redefine Layout patterns.

## Reusable Method

| Question                                         | Route                                                                                                                          | Decision to record                             |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Can the value be calculated from current inputs? | [Derived state](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/derived-state/index.md)             | Source inputs and equality/invalidation        |
| Do several controls write one accepted value?    | [Single owner](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/single-owner/index.md)               | Nearest surviving owner and intent API         |
| Does selection change when rows reorder?         | [ID selection](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/id-selection/index.md)               | Stable identity and missing-item policy        |
| Must edits survive Cancel or a failed save?      | [Draft and baseline](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/draft-and-baseline/index.md)   | Draft owner and baseline meaning               |
| Can editing continue during saving?              | [Submitted snapshot](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/submitted-snapshot/index.md)   | Captured data and acknowledgement identity     |
| Can leaving discard work?                        | [Unsaved navigation](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/unsaved-navigation/index.md)   | Cancel, discard, and save-and-leave policy     |
| Can replaceable reads finish out of order?       | [Latest request wins](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/latest-request-wins/index.md) | Result acceptance identity                     |
| Can an operation be activated repeatedly?        | [Single flight](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/single-flight/index.md)             | Share, ignore, queue, or replace               |
| Should a change appear before acknowledgement?   | [Optimistic overlay](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/optimistic-overlay/index.md)   | Rollback scope and uncertain outcome recovery  |
| Should Back, reload, and links restore the view? | [URL state](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/url-state/index.md)                     | Committed route versus input buffer            |
| Is the screen reused for another identity?       | [Identity reset](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/identity-reset/index.md)           | Generation and cleanup scope                   |
| Must state survive a new session?                | [Versioned restore](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/versioned-restore/index.md)     | Schema, account scope, migration and retention |

These questions can select several patterns. For search, first separate the input buffer from the committed URL, then attach a latest-wins request owner and selected ID. The [search recipe](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/recipes/search-detail/index.md) defines the joint contract.

Before adding another pattern, name a failure the existing set cannot express. Put a new combination in a recipe; add a primitive only when its owner or invariant is independently reusable.

## Opinionated Guidance

Choose the failure and lifetime before the library. A cache, URL, form buffer, and session preference may share a screen without sharing an owner.

## Platform-Specific Guidance

Transport cancellation, router guards, and storage hooks vary by framework and runtime. Record those adapter choices in the brief instead of assuming the abstract model implements them.

## Unsupported Absolutes

A decision tree is not an exhaustive treatment of offline replication, collaboration, or server transactions. Escalate those requirements to a separately specified consistency protocol.

## Verification Contract

Try routing a stale search result, lost edit, and wrong-account restore. Each must reach a named pattern and concrete failure trace. Revisit when two routes prescribe conflicting owners.

## Source, License, And Attribution

Locally authored synthesis and examples. No upstream implementation is copied. These experimental contracts describe consumer-owned behavior; review when a failure, ownership change, or platform change invalidates an assumption.

## IA Navigation

Parent: [State Management](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/index/index.md).
Next: [Continue the state management route](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/state-brief/index.md).