# Decision pipeline

In twelfth, the decision pipeline is the path commercial work takes: surfaced into Triage, settled into Pending, then recorded as a decision.

Also called: triage, pending

- **Is:** In twelfth, the path commercial work takes: Triage, then Pending, then a recorded decision.
- **Shows:** Which work is noticed, which is being worked, and which is decided.
- **Rule:** The engine proposes and a person decides. Nothing is committed on its own.

## What it means for retail and category teams

Most teams run an informal version: an issue is noticed in a report, discussed in a meeting and eventually acted on, with little record of which stage anything is in. twelfth makes the stages explicit. Triage holds lines that have been surfaced but not yet settled; Pending holds lines that are settled and waiting on the rest of the batch; the last stage records the decision and raises or closes the batch.

## Why it matters

With separate stages, 'noticed', 'being worked' and 'decided' are different states with different owners. A team can see where work is piling up, and nothing is recorded until a person has reviewed it.

## How Twelfth handles this

The stages live inside a project, which the daily sync opens per supplier, per remit or per lane. twelfth proposes and people decide: the engine never commits a decision on its own, and guardrails decide when a line needs a second pair of eyes. Every recorded decision lands in the Decisions log.

## Illustrative example

The business and figures are illustrative. None of it is customer data.

On Monday a buyer's project holds 18 lines in Triage: 11 availability gaps, 5 price gaps and 2 range questions. The buyer settles the 16 they own into Pending and sends the 2 range questions to their category manager, who settles them on Tuesday. With the batch complete, all 18 decisions are recorded, each with its evidence and the person who made it.

## Related concepts

- [Decision record](https://twelfth.ai/glossary/decision-record)
- [Remit](https://twelfth.ai/glossary/remit)
- [Guardrail](https://twelfth.ai/glossary/guardrail)

## Next step

### See a decision move through Twelfth

Bring a decision your team already makes. We can show where its evidence, owner, approval and record sit in the workflow.

- [Book a demo](https://twelfth.ai/book-a-demo)
- [How a Twelfth pilot works](https://twelfth.ai/pilot): Start with one category, the buyers who know it and the data they trust.

Source: https://twelfth.ai/glossary/decision-pipeline