diff --git a/DEPENDENCIES b/DEPENDENCIES
index 70ebbea37e1..7c8878cb3cc 100644
--- a/DEPENDENCIES
+++ b/DEPENDENCIES
@@ -116,10 +116,10 @@ maven/mavencentral/io.netty/netty-tcnative-boringssl-static/2.0.56.Final, Apache
 maven/mavencentral/io.netty/netty-tcnative-classes/2.0.56.Final, Apache-2.0, approved, clearlydefined
 maven/mavencentral/io.netty/netty-transport-native-unix-common/4.1.86.Final, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause AND MIT, approved, CQ20926
 maven/mavencentral/io.netty/netty-transport/4.1.86.Final, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause AND MIT, approved, CQ20926
-maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry.instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-annotations/1.28.0, , restricted, clearlydefined
+maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry.instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-annotations/1.28.0, Apache-2.0, approved, #9662
 maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry.proto/opentelemetry-proto/0.20.0-alpha, Apache-2.0, approved, #9274
-maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry/opentelemetry-api/1.28.0, , restricted, clearlydefined
-maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry/opentelemetry-context/1.28.0, , restricted, clearlydefined
+maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry/opentelemetry-api/1.28.0, Apache-2.0, approved, #9661
+maven/mavencentral/io.opentelemetry/opentelemetry-context/1.28.0, Apache-2.0, approved, #9663
 maven/mavencentral/io.prometheus/simpleclient/0.16.0, Apache-2.0, approved, clearlydefined
 maven/mavencentral/io.prometheus/simpleclient_common/0.16.0, Apache-2.0, approved, clearlydefined
 maven/mavencentral/io.prometheus/simpleclient_httpserver/0.16.0, Apache-2.0, approved, clearlydefined
diff --git a/docs/developer/decision-records/2023-07-20-state-machine-guards/README.md b/docs/developer/decision-records/2023-07-20-state-machine-guards/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bdd730be391
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/developer/decision-records/2023-07-20-state-machine-guards/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+# State Machine guards
+
+## Decision
+
+The EDC will provide a way to permit external interactions over internal (automatic) ones in the state machine processes through guards.
+
+## Rationale
+
+In the EDC domain, the state machine is currently a completely automatic engine, every state transition is pre-defined
+and they are following completely automatic logic.
+
+With the upcoming introduction of the so-called "counter offer" feature, there's the need to permit to avoid the state machine to
+pick up certain states and having the user interacting with it through commands in the Management API.
+
+This will be permitted in the most generic way possible, giving to every state machine the possibility to "interrupt" the
+automatic flow and let the user act on it.
+
+## Approach
+
+This implementation is based on two pillars:
+- adding a generic guard functionality to the state machine
+- add a flag that permits to recognize entities that are `pending` (waiting for external interactions)
+
+The first one will be implemented in the `StateProcessorImpl`, that's the component that executes the state machine logic.
+In the new implementation, there will be the possibility to add a `Guard`, that's a tuple of a `Predicate` and a `Function`.
+The new `StateProcessorImpl` flow will be:
+```java
+entities.get().stream()
+    .map(entity -> {
+        if (hook.predicate().test(entity)) {
+            return hook.process().apply(entity);
+        } else {
+            return process.apply(entity);
+        }
+    })
+    .filter(isEqual(true))
+    .count()
+```
+
+so the `Guard` will take over in the case its predicate matches the entity.
+
+This way it will be possible to control the flow, and every `*Manager` (`ContractNegotiation`, `TransferProcess`, ...) 
+can then register their own `PendingGuard` on the state machine configuration.
+In particular, the default hook function implementation will set the "pending" flag on the entity,
+like: 
+```
+Function<Entity> hookFunction = entity -> {
+    entity.setPending(true);
+    update(entity);
+    return true;
+```
+
+The flag will be then used as an additional filter passed to the `store.nextNotLeased` method used by the state machine
+to filter out such entities. This way they will just stand still in the database, pending.
+
+The hook predicate will be completely extensible and will permit the implementors to decide if a specific entity state needs
+external interaction based on the input, like:
+```java
+class EntityPendingGuard implements PendingGuard<Entity> {
+    
+    // custom collaborators as other services
+    
+    boolean test(Entity entity) {
+        // custom condition
+        return entity.getState() = SPECIFIC_STATE.code() && otherCondition; // if true, the entity will be pending
+    }
+    
+}
+```
diff --git a/docs/developer/decision-records/README.md b/docs/developer/decision-records/README.md
index f6b73cb25b2..258159a3c68 100644
--- a/docs/developer/decision-records/README.md
+++ b/docs/developer/decision-records/README.md
@@ -44,3 +44,4 @@
 - [2023-06-05-validation-engine](2023-06-05-validation-engine)
 - [2023-06-30-allow-use-of-testcontainers](2023-06-30-allow-use-of-testcontainers/)
 - [2023-06-30 Sync Commands](2023-07-19-sync-commands)
+- [2023-06-30 State Machine guards](2023-07-20-state-machine-guards)