# Native question authoring follows the active catalog authority

Education exposes local question authoring only when `catalog-mode=JAVA_READ`; `SCALAR_READ` and other modes fail with an explicit business error before any database access. Tenant questions start as `DRAFT`, retain immutable content versions, are placed optimistically on an allowed Content Node, move only through `DRAFT → PUBLISHED → ARCHIVED`, and append an Education-owned lifecycle audit in the same transaction, because a local write under Scalar authority would be invisible to students and the platform's asynchronous operation log cannot prove atomic publication.

Question Placement has its own optimistic version, is available only to current-tenant `TENANT_OWNED` drafts, and becomes immutable at publication. Publication requires a stable active, visible, selectable PUBLIC or same-tenant Content Node. `ARCHIVED` is terminal for the current command surface, and `RETIRED` is not introduced until its distinct business and restoration semantics are decided. Direct question visibility follows the question's own publication state; entry, node, and collection state gates discovery through those routes rather than rewriting the question lifecycle.