# LDC-E1313 — Transition out of a terminal state

## What it means

A terminal state ends the run: marking a state terminal promises that
nothing leaves it. A transition that starts from such a state breaks
that promise — kept silent, the terminality would be a mere comment —
so the compiler stops at the transition.

The repair is to honor the ending: point the transition at a
non-terminal state, or drop the terminal mark if the state genuinely
has somewhere to go. Ends stay ends.

## Example

```law
language "law.core" version "0.2";
package demo.diagnostics version "0.1.0";
namespace "urn:law:demo:diagnostics";

entity Tenant;
procedure Review(t: Tenant) {
    state Open initial;
    state Mid terminal;
    state Closed terminal;
    transition Back {
        from Mid;
        to Closed;
    }
}
```

## Fix

```law
language "law.core" version "0.2";
package demo.diagnostics version "0.1.0";
namespace "urn:law:demo:diagnostics";

entity Tenant;
procedure Review(t: Tenant) {
    state Open initial;
    state Closed terminal;
    transition Decide {
        from Open;
        to Closed;
    }
}
```

## Engine message

The engine reports this in its own wording:

```text
example.law:10:16: error LDC-E1313: transition "Back" exits terminal state "Mid" — terminality would otherwise be a comment (§160)
```

## Related

- [Procedures](/constructs/procedure/) — states, transitions, and how a procedure runs.
- [LDC-E1312](/diagnostics/LDC-E1312/) — transitions must name declared states.