How QCDS Completion Recovery Protects a Previously Valid Artifact
QCDS separates recovery of a failed initial finalization from maintenance of an already valid completed artifact. In both cases, the design protects the signing facts; when a valid completed artifact already exists, regeneration also preserves that prior artifact in revision history and restores it if publication of a replacement fails.
Failed Initial Completion Does Not Reopen Signing
For a fully signed Request in completion_failed, the recovery queue never changes signer values or the immutable Request snapshot. Automatic recovery is capped at three attempts, and missing frozen-render metadata is treated as a preparation problem rather than silently consuming a failed attempt.
An authorized browser may prepare the exact frozen canonical PDF pages when an older Request needs render bootstrap data. Once the render set is ready, the normal completion finalizer can run again.
A Valid Completed Artifact Uses a Different Safety Path
An already Completed Request uses Regenerate Completed PDF, not the completion_failed retry queue. QCDS first requires the current completed artifact to exist before it will perform revision-safe regeneration.
The old completed object is entered in internal artifact-revision history before the new object becomes current. Regeneration therefore does not depend on destroying the prior object first.
Failed Regeneration Restores the Previous Current Pointer
If publishing a regenerated artifact fails, QCDS attempts to restore the previous completed-object pointer. On a multi-document Request, if any document regeneration throws an error after earlier documents changed, QCDS restores every previously current artifact pointer captured at the start of the operation.
This protects the Request from ending in a mixed state where only some documents point to regenerated artifacts.
Signing Evidence Is Outside the Artifact Swap
Artifact maintenance does not rewrite the immutable Request snapshot, final signer values, signatures, timestamps, identity evidence, Timeline/audit history, or prior delivery records. Those facts remain the authority used to regenerate the presentation.
Recovery and Regeneration Have Different Goals
- Retry Final PDF: complete a fully signed Request that never successfully reached a valid final PDF.
- Regenerate Completed PDF: create a new current rendering for an already completed Request while preserving the prior valid artifact as a revision.
Keeping those paths separate is what allows QCDS to recover presentation failures without asking signers to recreate evidence.
Community Discussion
Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDS feature? Visit the QC Digital Signature Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.