How to use this reference
Editorial synthesis: keep client intent, control acknowledgements, terminal operation evidence and business effects separate. An application should not mark an action reversed or release a reserved entitlement merely because cancellation was requested. Define the service-specific evidence needed to reconcile the outcome and any already-committed effects.
Before reading
- Basic asynchronous API and application state-machine concepts
Context and limits
- The linked contract says successful cancellation retains the operation with a CANCELLED error. Deleting the operation expresses disinterest in its result and does not cancel execution.
- The done field marks completion, not success; the outcome can be failure or cancellation. Some services may omit result data, so missing results must not be treated as proof of success.
- Neither reviewed source guarantees rollback of prior effects or specifies a universal authorization policy for reading, cancelling or deleting operations. Authorization is therefore not assigned as a topic.
- The 2025-02-04 changelog entry was committed on 2025-02-07. These maintenance signals and the 2019-07-25 page headers are distinct from publication or edition-release dates.
- These are Google API contracts and design guidance, not universal asynchronous-API guarantees, an implementation audit, vulnerability claim, bounty evidence or testing authorization.
Sources and provenance
- AIP-151: Long-running operations Google · reviewed 2026-10-04
- Google long-running operation contract at reviewed revision Google · reviewed 2026-10-04
- AIP-151 error-propagation clarification commit Google AIP project · reviewed 2026-10-04
Record reviewed 2026-10-04. Snapshot d5550c789111. Open the complete JSON contract.