bpmnlint-rules

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@miragon/rules/flow-through-element ​

Reports a sequence flow whose drawn path is routed through the body of a shape it does not connect to.

Examples ​

flow-through-element/invalid.bpmn

Invalid model: a flow routed through an unrelated task

Valid model: the flow routed around the task

1 finding
  • flow_reopen Sequence flow is routed through element <serviceTask_assessTicket>

Invalid: the Reopen loop-back is drawn straight through serviceTask_assessTicket, which it does not connect to

Valid: the same loop-back routed below the row, around every shape

Why ​

The diagram is the artifact a reviewer signs off on and that downstream tooling parses, so it has to match the semantics. A flow drawn straight through an unrelated task breaks that on both counts: the reviewer reads a connection that is not there, and code reading the geometry can treat the pass-through as a real link. bpmnlint's no-overlapping-elements does not catch it, because it only compares shape-vs-shape bounds and never inspects edge geometry.

Why this matters for agentic BPMN ​

Agents and auto-layout write DI coordinates directly instead of routing edges the way a modeler does, so a flow is easily drawn straight across a shape it has nothing to do with. The semantics stay untouched, so the XML diff looks clean and the defect slips through code review; it shows only once the diagram is rendered.

Typical AI artifact without this rule: a re-routed sequence flow whose waypoints run through the body of an unrelated task, invisible in the XML review and only obvious once the diagram is drawn.

What this rule guarantees: a sequence flow only ever passes through shapes it actually connects to, keeping the rendered model faithful to its semantics and safe to process programmatically.

What it does not report ​

Shapes a flow may legitimately pass over are excluded:

  • Enclosing containers: pools, lanes, groups, and expanded sub-processes. A flow drawn "over" a container it lives inside is not a defect. A collapsed sub-process is a task-sized box and is treated as an obstacle.
  • Boundary events and their host: a boundary event sits on its host's border, so the flow leaving it starts inside the host's bounds.
  • Decorative overlays: text annotations, groups, data objects and data stores.
  • The flow's own source and target.

Container membership uses moddle inheritance, so bpmn:Transaction and bpmn:AdHocSubProcess count as sub-processes.

Known limitations ​

Left to visual review: a flow drawn over a text label, and message-flow / association routing.

Further reading ​