Gate Release
A gate opening is not the same as a gate emptying. The Release tab decides how many entities actually go through each time it opens.
Release Mode
Section titled “Release Mode”| Mode | What goes through |
|---|---|
| One | A single entity per open, then the gate holds the rest until it opens again |
| N | A set Count of entities per open |
| All | Everything that fits downstream (the default) |
| Rate Limited | A steady flow, capped at a Rate you set |
| Windowed | Everything, but only during a repeating open window |
All means all that fit. Entities the next step has no room for are not dropped or reordered: they keep their place at the front of the gate’s queue and go first the next time there is room.
Shown for N. The number of entities released each time the gate opens, at least 1. Use it to meter work into a downstream step in fixed lots.
Shown for Rate Limited. A ceiling in entities per minute. The gate hands out releases as the allowance refills, so a rate of 2 lets roughly one entity through every 30 seconds rather than two in a burst at the top of each minute.
Window Duration and Window Interval
Section titled “Window Duration and Window Interval”Both are shown for Windowed, and you need both.
- Window Duration is how long the window stays open.
- Window Interval is the time from the start of one window to the start of the next.
A duration of 5 with an interval of 30 gives a 5 minute release window every half hour. Set the interval and the gate keeps re-opening; leave it wrong and the gate never re-opens after its first window closes, so the interval is not optional detail. The duration cannot be longer than the interval, and a model that tries is refused at load.
When the tab is not available
Section titled “When the tab is not available”Windowed is removed from the list on a gate running as Pull or as a Kanban control, because those gates are always open and a window has nothing to act on.
Under kanban the whole tab disappears. The cards and container size on Gate Flow Control are the release policy in that mode.
See also Gate Blocking for how the gate hands entities to the next step, and Gate Schedule for when it opens in the first place.