---
title: Outcomes
description: Keep account, publication, delivery, native post, schedule, and media identifiers distinct in application code.
---

A public reference is a JSON-safe locator, not a secret and not an authorization decision. It contains enough backend and platform context to reject a mismatched operation. The application still checks that the current tenant may use the referenced account.

## Resource boundaries

- A connected account identifies an authorized social identity through one backend instance.
- A publication records the application's intent and can contain several target deliveries.
- A delivery records one target's attempt and outcome.
- A platform post identifies content on the destination network, including content that Social SDK did not create.
- A scheduled job belongs to a backend or application worker and is not a platform post.
- Media, comments, and conversations have their own reference types.

These identifiers are not interchangeable. Removing a provider record, cancelling a pending schedule, and deleting content from a platform are separate operations with different permissions and side effects.

## Outcome boundaries

Each target reports its own lifecycle. `accepted` or `processing` means the backend took responsibility for more work. Only a destination-specific published state with a native post reference proves publication. A timeout can leave the result unknown; retrying that write blindly can duplicate public content.

Applications retain successful targets, reconcile uncertain targets, and retry only targets whose documented idempotency and failure state make a retry safe.