Reconciling an interrupted bulk edit from object-level receipts

Goal

Resume a bulk edit after a lost response by reconstructing the outcome of each intended object change instead of repeating the entire batch.

Prerequisites

Have an authorized batch manifest, stable object identifiers, expected revisions, and read access to the destination. The manifest should contain operation metadata and fingerprints rather than unnecessary copies of private content.

Steps

1. Freeze the intended object set and assign an operation identifier before starting. Record the expected precondition and desired postcondition for each item so partial completion can be recognised later.

2. After an interruption, distinguish confirmed success, confirmed rejection, and unknown outcome. A missing response belongs in the unknown group even if the surrounding items appear successful.

3. Read each unknown object through the authoritative interface. Compare its identity, relevant content fingerprint, revision, and any operation receipt with the intended postcondition; matching display text alone may belong to another operation.

4. Retry only items whose current state and interface contract make repetition safe. If an object changed independently, preserve that change and produce a conflict requiring reconciliation rather than overwriting it.

5. Close the batch by accounting for every manifest item. In a controlled test, interrupt before submission, after acceptance, and between items, then verify that resumed execution neither duplicates nor loses intended changes.

Expected result

The recovery report partitions the original batch into completed, unchanged, conflicted, and unresolved objects. It explains the evidence for each classification rather than relying on a single batch-level success flag.

Limits and test basis

This original protocol has not been executed here. Some services do not expose enough history to attribute a matching state to a specific operation. In that case preserve the ambiguity and obtain a stronger receipt before another irreversible write.