Skip to main content
Install Relativities first; it includes rslc. This guide runs the staffing example, a guideline for the synthetic carrier Example Mutual. Run your own guideline the same way. rslc examples get staffing saves the example, and open starts a log for its guideline:
One log holds one submission. open pins the log to the program, so later commands name only the log. Every command prints the entries it wrote, then the status: the stage and the open questions. The log’s name ends in .jsonl for a file of JSON lines, or in .sqlite for a database. Submission log compares the two. Each command that writes names its writer as --as role:name. The role is one that the guideline declares in Roles. The name is free text for the person or the tool.

​
Answer questions

A question is an input’s path, such as policy.payroll, or a referral’s name. To answer from a JSON file, pass --file:
The file holds one JSON object. Each top-level key is one question, and each entry names the file as its source. To answer on the command line, write question=value:
  • --because records why the writer gives the answer.
  • --from records where the answer comes from, such as a document or a system.
  • A value is JSON, or a bare word for a string: 2500000, true, no_claims.
  • Quote a value that the shell changes, such as 'policy={"payroll": 2500000}'.
  • One command takes several question=value pairs and applies all of them or refuses all of them.
  • To replace an answer, answer the question again.
  • Name a list item by its key, as in 'placements[class="clerical"].share=0.6'. Submission log gives the rules.

​
Check the status

The open block lists each question that still needs an answer, its kind, and the lowest role that may answer. A signoff line is a referral with its reason, and each reads line under it is an answer that the sign-off stands for. outcomes known so far lists each outcome that the answers already decide.

​
Retract an answer

To make a question open again, retract its answer by the path it was given at:
The referral leaves the status, because its condition reads the retracted answer. Answer the question again to continue:

​
Sign off a referral

A sign-off is an answer to the referral’s name, from the referral’s role or a role above it:
  • Approved lets the submission go on. Declined makes it Ineligible; see Decline a submission.
  • The entry records the answers that the manager saw, after on.
  • retract with the referral’s name takes a sign-off back.
  • A sign-off lapses when an answer that the referral’s condition reads changes. Sign off again on the new answers.

​
Quote

Give the quote a name:
  • quote works in the Quotable stage: every question has an answer and every open referral is approved.
  • A quote name starts with a lowercase letter and holds lowercase letters, digits and _. A log uses each name once.
  • A quote lapses when an answer or a sign-off changes after it. Quote again under a new name.

​
Offer quote options

The broker asks for a second quote with a $2,000,000 limit. Both quotes price the same firm, so only the limit differs. The rater marks limit with per quote:
An input with this mark is a term. Every other input is a fact, and all quotes of the submission share one answer to it. A quote option is a named set of answers to terms, laid over the shared answers. Answer the limit in an option named high, with --in:
The status after a command with --in is the status of that option: the premium is $5,500 at the higher limit. The shared answers still hold the $1,000,000 limit, so q1 stands. Quote the option under a new name:
Both quotes stand at once: q1 at $5,000 and q2 at $5,500. A plain status reads the shared answers, at the $1,000,000 limit:
Add --in high to read the option, at $5,500. An option answers terms only. The log refuses a fact in an option with the code NOT_A_TERM:
  • --in works with answer, retract, quote and status.
  • An option’s name follows the rule for a quote’s name.
  • An option starts with its first answer. quote --in on an option that holds zero answers is refused as NOT_QUOTABLE.
  • retract --in high takes back the option’s answer, and the option reads the shared answer again.
  • A new answer to a fact, given as usual, changes every option. Each quote that it changes lapses.
  • A sign-off given as usual counts in each option that holds the answers it read. A sign-off with --in counts in that option alone.

​
Bind

bind names one quote that stands. The insured accepts the higher limit:
  • bind takes a quote that stands. A bound submission is final.
  • A quote keeps its option, so bind takes the name alone.
  • The outcomes block of a plain status reads the shared answers, here the $1,000,000 limit. The bound policy is the option of q2: read it with status --in high.

​
Read the history

history lists every entry, with its number and its writer:
To see the status as it was after an earlier entry, pass its number as --at:

​
Write on what you read

Another person may change a submission between your read and your write. --based-on names the last entry you read, and the log then refuses a write whose facts changed after that entry. Start a second log, with the application and the loss experience in it:
The manager reads this status, whose last entry is 6. Before the manager decides, the underwriter corrects the firm’s age:
The manager signs off the firm of 2 years that entry 6 showed:
The log refuses the sign-off as STALE and names the answer that changed. Read the status again, then write on the entry it shows:
  • --based-on works with answer, retract, quote, bind and close.
  • The log compares only what the command reads. A change elsewhere in the log leaves your write valid.
  • With --in, the log compares what the command reads in that option.
  • The entry number is the last number in history, or seq in the --json output.

​
Close a submission

To end a submission before a quote is bound, close it with a reason: withdrawn, expired or lost.
A closed submission is final, like a bound one. Each role closes with these three reasons.

​
Decline a submission

A fourth reason, declined, records the carrier’s decision to turn a submission down. It follows the Ineligible stage. A third applicant is a PEO that is 2 years old. Open a log for it:
Answer two questions from its application:
The answers break a rule that has a code, so the stage is Ineligible. A sign-off of Declined gives the same stage. The declines block lists each rule and each sign-off that declines. An Ineligible submission stays open, because a typing error and a true answer break a rule alike. The log refuses quote, and it accepts two things:
  • A correction. Answer the question again, and the stage follows the new answers.
  • A decision. close declined turns the submission down for good.
  • close declined takes the role of the quote act, or a role above it.
  • The entry lists, after on, each code that the decision rests on.
  • In the Open and Quotable stages, the log refuses close declined as NOT_DECLINABLE.
  • Declined is final, like Bound and Closed.

​
Read the result from a program

Add --json to any command to get one JSON value on standard output. This Python reads the status of both logs, then sends a write to the bound one:
submission is a helper that this page defines, in ordinary Python. A report holds ok, the applied entries, the refusal, the last entry number seq, the program hash and the status. Submission log lists every field. A program that writes to a log needs the questions, the roles and the rules first. rslc submission contract submission.jsonl prints them as one JSON value, and Submission log lists its parts.

​
Exit codes

These codes belong to rslc submission. For the other rslc commands, 2 marks a wrong command line. Submission log explains each refusal code.

​
Replay a story with a script

A script file plays one submission from its first step and checks the results it expects. The example’s stale.script tells the story of the two sign-offs above:
Run it with rslc script:
  • The script’s log lives in memory. --keep log.jsonl writes it to a new log.
  • rslc script exits with 0 when every step passes, and with 1 otherwise.
  • Submission log gives every line form.