Long-running automated work usually persists its position as a stage name. That is enough to describe where the work got to, and not enough to describe what it was doing. When a single stage can stand for more than one pending operation, a crash in the wrong moment leaves you holding a label instead...

Retry repeats a task. Audit-driven rework carries forward the reason the previous attempt failed.

A workflow can look automated while still failing to improve if it only sends work back to be repeated. The difference between retry and rework is whether the next attempt receives the feedback, review...