Stedi Guides

Stop mailing PDFs back and forth just to align on EDI rules. In Stedi Guides, you model requirements visually, publish living docs, and drive validation from the same source. Start by creating a guide for a specific transaction set (like 850 or 810). Add envelopes, loops, and elements from a prebuilt library, then tighten them with precise usage: required/optional, min/max length, repeat counts, allowed qualifiers, and code lists. Define situational logic (if this qualifier is sent, then require that element), add cross-field constraints, and attach examples for each segment so implementers see exactly what valid data looks like. As you shape the rules, preview the resulting documentation and the machine-readable artifact that powers automation.

Share the guide as a hosted, searchable reference for your counterparties. Invite teammates for concurrent editing, assign reviewers, and capture notes directly on fields so decisions live beside the rule they affect. When a version is ready, publish it with a clear change log and a stable link for partners to follow. Require sign-off before go‑live, and keep old versions accessible so in-flight trading remains stable while new vendors onboard. You can export for offline reading, tag topics for quick lookup, and mirror the content into your internal portal so support and operations have one source of truth.

Turn the guide into enforcement with your integrations. Use the generated artifact to parse incoming files, flag violations with human-readable messages, and return structured errors for automated retries. For outbound flows, validate payloads before you generate X12 so you don’t ship bad data. Plug the EDI Translate API into your message broker, S3/FTP watchers, or CI pipelines: every file is checked against the exact rules you authored. During testing, batch-run sample transactions to see which rules fire, iterate in the UI, and re‑validate within seconds. When you’re ready, hand the artifact to engineers—they don’t need to reverse‑engineer a PDF to write code.

Operate the program over time without chaos. Clone a guide to start a new partner profile, diff versions to see what changed, and schedule deprecations with clear sunset dates. Track adherence across partners by monitoring which rules fail most often and tightening documentation where needed. Archive retired guides for audit, keep retention policies clean, and recover prior versions if a rollback is required. The outcome: faster onboarding, fewer production surprises, and consistent EDI behavior enforced by the same source that people read and systems trust.