Activate or retire an approval policy
Platform module
POST/approval-policies/{id}/transitionsapprovalPolicies.transition
Moves a policy Draft to Active, Draft to Retired or Active to Retired with compare-and-set (app.transition_approval_policy). Activation needs a step (approval_policy_no_steps) and no other Active policy of the document type (approval_policy_active_exists). Requires `Idempotency-Key`; a replay returns the original response. A rule that refuses the request returns 422 with `refusal` and `reason`.
- Requires the capability org.approval_policies.write.
- OAuth scopes: org.
- Send an Idempotency-Key header. A replay with the same key returns the original response.
- Error statuses: 400, 401, 404, 409, 422, 429. Errors are RFC 9457 problem details.
Path and query parameters
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | string (uuid) | Yes | Identifier of the approval policy. |
Request body: ApprovalPolicyTransitionRequest
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| expected_state | "Draft" | "Active" | "Retired" | Yes | The state the caller believes the row is in (compare-and-set). |
| to_state | "Draft" | "Active" | "Retired" | Yes | Target state. |
| reason | string | No | Reason, required by some transitions.Constraints: length 1 to any |
{
"expected_state": "Draft",
"to_state": "Active",
"reason": "Client approved the revised scope."
}Response 200: ApprovalPolicy
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | string (uuid) | Yes | Identifier of the approval policy. |
| org_id | string (uuid) | Yes | Identifier of the owning organization, derived from the parent row and never accepted from the caller. |
| created_at | string (date-time) | Yes | When the row was created. |
| created_by | string (uuid) | null | Yes | Identifier of the person who created the row; null when a seed, platform or system process created it. |
| updated_at | string (date-time) | Yes | When the row was last updated. |
| updated_by | string (uuid) | null | Yes | Identifier of the person who last updated the row; null when a seed, platform or system process updated it. |
| name | string | Yes | Policy name.Constraints: length 1 to 300 |
| document_type | "Purchase Order" | "Change Order" | "Expense" | "Invoice Approval" | "Payroll Run" | "Requisition" | Yes | Spend document type the policy gates. |
| description | string | null | Yes | What the policy is for.Constraints: length 1 to 20000 |
| currency_code | string | null | Yes | ISO 4217 currency of applies_above_minor; null for every amount.Constraints: pattern ^[A-Z]{3}$ |
| applies_above_minor | integer (int64) | null | Yes | The policy applies above this amount in currency_code, and to every amount in another currency; null for every document of the type. Integer minor units of the resource currency; null means unpriced, never zero. |
| policy_state | "Draft" | "Active" | "Retired" | Yes | Policy state. |
{
"id": "0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
"org_id": "0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
"created_at": "2026-10-08T14:30:00Z",
"created_by": "0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
"updated_at": "2026-10-08T14:30:00Z",
"updated_by": "0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
"name": "PO Over Limit",
"document_type": "Purchase Order",
"description": "Every purchase order goes to finance.",
"currency_code": "USD",
"applies_above_minor": 1000000,
"policy_state": "Active"
}Code samples
curl -X POST "$XOS_BASE_URL/approval-policies/0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f/transitions" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $XOS_API_KEY" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"expected_state":"Draft","to_state":"Active","reason":"Client approved the revised scope."}'const { data } = await xos.approvalPolicies.transition("0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f", {
"expected_state": "Draft",
"to_state": "Active",
"reason": "Client approved the revised scope."
});response = xos.approval_policies.transition("0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f", {"expected_state": "Draft", "to_state": "Active", "reason": "Client approved the revised scope."})xos approval-policies transition 0192f1e2-7c3a-7b4d-9e8f-1a2b3c4d5e6f --data '{"expected_state":"Draft","to_state":"Active","reason":"Client approved the revised scope."}'