ADR-262: The field writers write into the workspace, and a redirect is refused before the card 

Context 

ADR-260 let update_content_element write a workspace version in the draft workspace a run was started in and left every other writer refusing a draft workspace — after the approval card had been shown and approved. Five more writers change fields of an existing record: update_page_metadata (pages), set_file_reference_alternative_text (sys_file_reference), set_file_alternative_text and update_fal_asset_meta (sys_file_metadata), and publish_record (hidden of pages or tt_content). Each table declares ctrl.versioningWS, so the DataHandler started with a user in a draft workspace stores a version (TYPO3 14.3.10 and 13.4.37, DataHandler::process_datamap(), the branch around workspaceCannotEditRecord() and workspaceAllowAutoCreation()).

sys_file_metadata needed a measurement of its own, because file metadata is read through FAL rather than as a record. Measured on 2026-11-05 against TYPO3 14.3.10, as a non-admin editor with a page mount and a file mount who is a member of the workspace:

• the DataHandler stores a version (t3ver_wsid, t3ver_oid) and leaves the live row;
• WorkspaceService::selectVersionsInWorkspace(), the Workspaces module's query, lists that version for the editor, on their page tree and over all their mounts — core adds root level 0 to the page list for tables that ignore the root-level restriction "(e.g. FAL records)";
• in a frontend request previewing the workspace, MetaDataRepository::findByFileUid() returns the version's values (EXT:frontend's FileMetadataOverlayAspect overlays it); outside the frontend it returns the live row.

The redirect writers create_redirect, update_redirect and disable_redirect write sys_redirect, which core does not version (versioningWS false). In a draft workspace the DataHandler either refuses such a write or — where the workspace allows live editing, or the table versioningWS_alwaysAllowLiveEdit — writes the live row at once, past the workspace (BackendUserAuthentication::workspaceAllowsLiveEditingInTable()). They refused, too, after the card.

clear_cache writes no record. Core's DataHandler::clear_cacheCmd() does not consult the workspace, and the caches it empties are not kept per workspace.

Decision 

The five field writers write into the run's workspace, as update_content_element does under ADR-260: they refuse a draft workspace only where the run did not record it, read the record, the card's current values and the read-back through the workspace overlay (fetchRowAsTheUserSees(), or for the file metadata the live row overlaid with its version), name the workspace on the card, and end their answer with "Stored as a draft in the workspace …; live stays unchanged until that workspace is published", so the model does not tell the editor the change is live. publish_record in a draft workspace clears the flag in the record's version: visitors see the record once the workspace is published. File metadata is versioned rather than refused: the version is created, listed in the Workspaces module, and previewed in the frontend, which is what an editor's own save in the file list produces.

The field writers also ask the helper below for the table they write: where an installation takes the versioning off one of these tables, the DataHandler would write the live row in a draft workspace, and the writer refuses instead of reporting a draft.

A call its tool refuses whatever is decided does not wait for approval. A tool may implement RefusesBeforeApprovalInterface: refusalBeforeApproval($arguments, $context) answers with the refusal or null. Wherever the loop asks whether a call needs approval — the approval scan, the proposal of a guided process, the calls settled beside that proposal, and the calls run on the resume after a question was answered — it asks ToolApprovalRule and then this method; a refusal means no suspension, and the call goes to the tool. The tool's execute() asks the same method first and returns its refusal unchanged, so skipping the approval can never lead to a write. A method that throws counts as no refusal: the call waits for approval as before.

The redirect writers refuse in a draft workspace before the card, with refuseUnversionedTableInDraftWorkspace() of WritesThroughDataHandlerTrait: in a draft workspace a table whose versioningWS is not true is refused, whatever the workspace or the table allow — a change there would go live, and an editor working in a draft workspace asked for a draft. So is a versioned table that sets versioningWS_alwaysAllowLiveEdit: TYPO3 13.4 edits its live rows in a workspace as well (workspaceAllowsLiveEditingInTable() asks that flag before the versioning there; 14.3 asks it for tables without versioning only). The answer names the workspace and the table and says the change can only be made in the live workspace.

In a turn that suspends for another call the refused call's card says so. A turn is approved as one (ADR-132): when another call of the turn needs approval, the refused call is pending too, and its card shows the refusal in the card's language instead of the change. The line depends on the workspace and the table only, so the card is the same when the run resumes (ADR-184). Approving the turn runs the other call and the refused one, which refuses; declining it gives every call the denial.

:php:`ToolApprovalRule` stays context-free. The registry's boot validation, the Governance simulator and the unattended filter ask whether a tool needs approval in general, and for these tools it does.

clear_cache is unchanged.

Consequences 

✓ An editor in a draft workspace can let the chat change page metadata, an image's alternative text on one use or on the file, a file's title, description and copyright, and unhide a page or an element; each change waits in the Workspaces module, live stays as it was.

✓ A redirect asked for in a draft workspace no longer shows an approval card that can only end in a refusal.

✓ Another writer that cannot write in the run's context — a table core does not version — implements the interface with the same helper.

✗ set_file_reference_alternative_text reads the reference and the record it sits on in the workspace, but that record's page and the inline owners above it are read live. A reference whose page, or an owner above its record, is new in the workspace is refused as not found.

✗ Outside the frontend core shows a file's live metadata: the file list and the image's fallback text in a backend form show the live text until the workspace is published. The metadata version is edited in the file list's metadata form, which overlays it.

✗ Where an installation takes the versioning off one of the field writers' tables, their card still names the workspace, and the write is refused after the approval; a stock TYPO3 versions all four tables.

✗ A declined turn gives the refused call the denial, as every other call of the turn; the model reads "declined" rather than the refusal's reason, and learns that reason only when it asks again.

✗ The other writers — create, attach, move, copy, delete, localize, replace a reference, the social image — still refuse a draft workspace after the card.