---
type: Domain Guide
title: Multi-Step Form With Retained Draft
description: Retain entered values across steps and guard progression and final submission.
domain: design-engineering
lifecycle: experimental
provenance_kind: local
---
# Multi-Step Form With Retained Draft

## Repository Boundary

Retain entered values across steps and guard progression and final submission. This is a consumer interaction composition in Design Engineering. Spatial structure comes from [Form Flow](https://style.gallery/library/recipes/form-flow/index.md); this recipe adds no reusable Layout behavior.

## Reusable Method

### Selected Pattern Stack

[single owner](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/single-owner/index.md), [draft/baseline](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/draft-and-baseline/index.md), [submitted snapshot](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/submitted-snapshot/index.md), [unsaved navigation](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/patterns/unsaved-navigation/index.md).

### Ownership And Event Flow

The flow owns all field values and current step; each field emits intents. Validity is derived from relevant fields. The final operation owns the submitted snapshot. Unmounting a step does not destroy the flow draft.

Edit → validate current step → advance if allowed. Back preserves values. Changing an earlier answer recomputes eligibility and invalidates dependent values under an explicit policy. Final Submit captures the whole valid draft once.

### Composition And Substitution

An in-memory step is enough when deep links are not a requirement; use URL state when they are. Versioned restore is optional for long flows and requires retention/privacy decisions. Do not persist request-pending flags.

### Acceptance Sequences

| Sequence                           | Expected outcome                                                       |
| ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Advance, go Back, revisit          | Values persist; errors follow current validity                         |
| Change an earlier branching answer | Hidden dependent answers are cleared or excluded under declared policy |
| Deep-link to a later step          | Guard prerequisites or redirect without silently submitting            |
| Fail final submission              | Retain all fields and provide a route to the relevant error            |
| Edit while final save completes    | Preserve later edits using snapshot semantics                          |

## Opinionated Guidance

Keep the ownership boundaries visible when composing the patterns. One screen can combine these mechanisms without making every value global. Record the rejected alternative and its user-visible cost in the [state brief](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/state-brief/index.md).

## Platform-Specific Guidance

Announce step context and move focus to the step heading or first invalid field as appropriate. Step order, DOM order, and validation routes must agree.

## Unsupported Absolutes

These acceptance sequences are proposed integration checks, not captured product evidence. Pattern model tests do not prove this entire screen, its backend, or its focus behavior.

## Verification Contract

Adapt every acceptance row to the consumer and record actual results with the [verification matrix](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/verification/index.md). Include the ordinary successful task and at least one interrupted task. The initial handoff is `consumer_reference: not_applicable` because this fictional recipe selects no consumer profile or conformance record.

## 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/recipes/index/index.md).
Next: [Continue the state management route](https://style.gallery/library/design-engineering/state-management/verification/index.md).