Checklist Closure Gating

Stopping a ticket closing with a checklist outstanding

A checklist that nobody has to finish is a suggestion. From 2.5.0 a checklist can refuse to let a ticket close until its steps are done — and which checklists do that is decided per checklist, by the person who wrote the procedure.

Contributed by Santhosh Srinivasan, from discussion #138.

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The two levels

Open a checklist template and pick one:

Level	What happens when somebody tries to close with steps outstanding
Standard	They are warned, may go ahead, and the override is recorded — who did it, and when
Critical	The close is refused

The choice sits with the template, not with the install, because the person writing the procedure is the one who knows whether skipping a step is a judgement call or a serious matter. A new-starter setup checklist and a fire-panel isolation are not the same kind of list, and an install-wide switch would force them to be.

Standard is the default, so nothing you already have starts blocking tickets when you upgrade.

A company-wide floor

Tickets → Settings → Checklists carries two choices for organisations that need more than per-template judgement:

• Follow each checklist (the default), or block every ticket with outstanding steps — an absolute floor that overrides the templates.
• What to do about a ticket with no checklist at all — because "every ticket must have its checklist finished" means nothing if a ticket can simply have none.

What being blocked looks like

A Critical checklist shows a padlock. Attempting to close tells you which steps are outstanding rather than just refusing — the point is to get the work finished, not to win an argument.

Every route to closing a ticket goes through the same gate: the reading pane, the right-click menu, bulk actions and workflows.

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See also

• Checklists and SOPs — writing and using them
• Tickets
• What changed at review, and why — for contributors
• Developer guide