Compensation Steps Deserve the Same Rigor as Forward Steps

Compensation logic runs during the worst conditions the workflow will ever see, which is exactly why it cannot be the least tested code in the system.

Forward steps run constantly and get debugged for free. Compensation steps run rarely, under pressure, against half-completed state, and are somehow the code nobody reviewed twice.

Rigor for the undo path

• Compensation runs in tests against every partial-failure shape.
• Each compensation names what it cannot undo, honestly.
• Compensations are idempotent because incidents retry them.

Use the architecture guide, examples, and threat model to hold the undo path to the forward path’s standard.