Workflow Execution
Once a workflow is enabled, every time it runs it creates an execution — a tracked instance that moves through the workflow’s steps one by one. This guide covers how to start executions, monitor their progress, handle problems, and review past runs.
Starting a workflow
Section titled “Starting a workflow”How a workflow starts depends on its trigger type:
- Manual — Go to the Workflows page, find the workflow, and click Run. If the workflow has input fields, you will be prompted to fill them in first. You can also start a manual workflow from within a conversation by asking an agent to trigger it.
- Event — The workflow starts automatically when a matching event arrives via a webhook or an integration trigger. The event payload is passed to the first step as input data.
- Schedule — The workflow starts automatically at the configured time. No manual action needed.
Each trigger creates a new, independent execution. If the same workflow is triggered multiple times, multiple executions run in parallel without interfering with each other.
The execution view
Section titled “The execution view”When you click on a workflow and select a specific execution, you see the execution view — a timeline showing each step and its current state.
The timeline displays:
- Each step in the workflow, listed in order
- The current state of each step (see below)
- The agent assigned to each step
- Timestamps for when each step started and completed
- The output or result of completed steps
- Any comments from reviewers or approvers
Step states
Section titled “Step states”Each step in an execution moves through the following states:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | The step has not started yet. It is waiting for a previous step to complete. |
| Running | The assigned agent is currently working on this step. |
| Completed | The step finished successfully. The output is available for the next step to use. |
| Failed | The step encountered an error. The workflow pauses so you can investigate and decide what to do. |
| Waiting for approval | The step has completed but has an approval or review gate. The workflow is paused until someone approves, rejects, or reviews the output. |
Steps always move forward through these states. A step cannot go back to “Pending” once it has started running.
Monitoring executions
Section titled “Monitoring executions”You can monitor all running executions from the Workflows page. Each workflow shows a count of active executions. Click into a workflow to see the list of executions, filtered by status:
- Running — Executions currently in progress
- Waiting — Executions paused at a review or approval gate
- Completed — Executions that finished successfully
- Failed — Executions that stopped due to an error
- Cancelled — Executions that were manually cancelled
Handling failures
Section titled “Handling failures”When a step fails, the workflow pauses at that step. You will see a Failed badge on the step along with an error message explaining what went wrong.
Common reasons for step failures include:
- The assigned agent could not complete the task (for example, missing information or an unclear instruction)
- An integration the agent tried to use returned an error (for example, an expired OAuth token)
- A timeout occurred because the step took longer than the allowed time limit
When a step fails, you have several options:
- Retry — Click Retry to have the agent attempt the step again. This is useful for transient errors like network timeouts or temporary service outages.
- Edit and retry — Modify the step’s instructions before retrying. This helps if the original instructions were unclear or missing context.
- Skip — Mark the step as skipped and continue to the next step. Use this only if the failed step is not critical to the overall process.
- Cancel — Stop the entire execution.
Force-advance
Section titled “Force-advance”Sometimes a step gets stuck — the agent takes too long, or an approval gate is waiting on someone who is unavailable. In these situations, administrators can force-advance the workflow.
To force-advance, click the stuck step in the execution view and select Force Advance. The workflow will skip the current step and move to the next one. If the stuck step was an approval gate, the force-advance counts as an implicit approval from the admin who performed it.
Cancelling an execution
Section titled “Cancelling an execution”To stop a running execution, open it and click Cancel Execution at the top of the execution view. Cancelled executions are preserved in the execution history with a “Cancelled” status. Any steps that were completed before cancellation retain their output.
Cancelling an execution does not undo any actions that agents have already performed. For example, if an agent sent an email in Step 2 and you cancel the execution at Step 4, the email is still sent.
Execution history
Section titled “Execution history”All executions are retained in the execution history regardless of their outcome. You can filter by status, date range, and trigger type to find specific runs. Click any execution to see its full timeline, step outputs, approval decisions, and error messages.
The execution history is useful for:
- Auditing — Reviewing who approved what and when
- Debugging — Understanding why a workflow failed
- Reporting — Seeing how many times a workflow ran over a given period
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- Creating Workflows — Build a new workflow from scratch.
- Steps & Gates — Learn about all step types and gate configurations.
- Integrations — Connect external services so your workflow agents can send emails, update records, and more.