Exclusive gateway

An Exclusive (XOR) gateway routes the token down exactly one outgoing path. The conditions on the outgoing sequence flows are evaluated in the order the flows are defined, and the first one that evaluates to true wins; a default flow serves as the fallback when none matches.

Rendered as a diamond with an X marker.

Use cases

• Business decisions — route orders above €10,000 to manual review and everything else to auto-approval, based on a process variable.
• Branch on an earlier result — after a Business rule task, continue along the path matching the decision outcome.
• Merge alternative paths — reunite the branches of an earlier decision back into a single flow before the next common step.

Usage in BPMN

The decision is configured on the outgoing sequence flows, not on the gateway:

Markup	Where	Required	Description
bpmn:conditionExpression	outgoing bpmn:sequenceFlow	yes, on every non-default flow	A FEEL expression prefixed with = that must evaluate to a boolean, e.g. = amount > 10000.
default	the gateway element	no	References the fallback flow, taken when no condition evaluates to true. The default flow carries no condition expression.

Execution flow when diverging:

1. A token arrives and the outgoing flows' conditions are evaluated against the current process variables, in the order the flows are defined in the XML.
2. The first condition that evaluates to true wins — remaining conditions are not evaluated, and the token continues along that single flow.
3. If no condition matches, the default flow is taken.
4. If no condition matches and no default flow is defined — or a condition does not evaluate to a boolean — the token fails and an incident is recorded.

A flow without a condition expression is only followed when it is the gateway's single outgoing flow; with several outgoing flows, every non-default flow needs a condition.

When converging, an Exclusive gateway performs no synchronization: each arriving token is passed straight to the outgoing flow, independently of the others.

Related documentation

• Sequence flow — sequence flow basics and the default flow markup.
• Inclusive gateway — when more than one matching path should be taken.
• Business rule task — evaluating a DMN decision whose result the gateway branches on.

XML example

An order approval decision: orders above 10 000 go to manual review, everything else takes the default flow to auto-approval:

<bpmn:exclusiveGateway id="Gateway_CheckAmount" name="Amount?" default="Flow_Default">
  <bpmn:incoming>Flow_In</bpmn:incoming>
  <bpmn:outgoing>Flow_High</bpmn:outgoing>
  <bpmn:outgoing>Flow_Default</bpmn:outgoing>
</bpmn:exclusiveGateway>

<bpmn:sequenceFlow id="Flow_High" sourceRef="Gateway_CheckAmount" targetRef="Task_ManualReview">
  <bpmn:conditionExpression>= amount > 10000</bpmn:conditionExpression>
</bpmn:sequenceFlow>
<bpmn:sequenceFlow id="Flow_Default" sourceRef="Gateway_CheckAmount" targetRef="Task_AutoApprove" />