Automating Approval Flows in Node.js and Postgres with State Machines

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Business approvals often stall in email inboxes, leaving no clear record of status, ownership, or deadlines. This guide proposes storing each request in Postgres with a single explicit state, enforced by a CHECK constraint. Every state change is recorded in an append-only event log that supports later audits. Transition rules are kept as plain data in the codebase so the process is easy to review. A scheduled job can then find requests past their deadline and escalate them to the next approver.

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