Finding and monitoring workflow runs

After a workflow executes, Flow provides a log of what happend, called a workflow run, that allows you to monitor its performance and behavior.

Where to find runs

You can monitor all workflows in the Flow app. Workflows that contain a marketing activity can also be viewed from the Admin in Marketing Automation.

View all workflow runs

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps > Flow.
  2. Click Recent runs.
  3. Review the runs listed and click a run to find the details.

View workflows runs for a specific workflow

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps > Shopify Flow.
  2. Open the workflow.
  3. Review the runs listed and click a run to find the details.

Monitor a marketing automation workflow

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
  2. Click the marketing automation that you want to monitor to view its run history.

Viewing the recent runs list

The workflow runs table displays key data about the workflow runs:

Data included in the workflow run table
ColumnDescription
Run status

Running - currently executing or retrying

Waiting - a wait step has delayed a workflow

Completed - done

ResultsList of actions completed and a list of errors by step.
RetriesIf the run was retried, then a link to the list of retries is provided.
Trigger type

Manual retry - the run was a retry of a previous run

Manual trigger - the workflow was run manually from the Shopify admin

Trigger event - triggered by an event or a schedule

Finding a workflow run

You can search for workflow runs in Flow using several methods.

After choosing to search, Flow will attempt to find workflow runs that have the text or ID in the step data. Flow won't find a run if:

  • The run's step data doesn't contain the ID or text
  • The run was purged from the system because it was older than 7 days

The step data can be viewed from any run by opening the run and clicking Step data on a step.

Search from Admin

For resources that have a More actions menu, you can initiate a workflow run search by choosing the Search Flow runs option. This option is available for the following resources:

  • Orders
  • Draft orders
  • Customers
  • Products
  • Variants
  • Collections

To use this option, follow these steps:

  1. In the Shopify admin, open the resource that you want to search for (such as an order)
  2. Click More actions.
  3. Click Search Flow runs.

Search from Flow

In the Flow app, you can search for any data that was included in the step data sections in a workflow run. When searching, be sure to omit any punctionation. For example, to search for an order ID, search 43843493 instead of gid://shopify/Order/43843493. From a workflow run list, follow these steps:

  1. Click Add filter
  2. Choose Includes text
  3. Enter the text or ID that you want to search for

ID's for orders, products, and other resources can be found in the URL if you view that resource in the Admin. For example, if your url is https://admin.shopify.com/store/you-store-name/orders/9790885625878 then 9790885625878 is the order ID.

Search by time range

Considerations for finding a workflow run by time range:

  • If the time zone on your device is different than your store's time zone, then the date and time for a workflow run might be inaccurate. Factor this difference into the Time filter that you use.
  • In high volume stores, you might need to use a narrow time range and other filters to make it easier to find a specific workflow run.
  • Workflow runs are stored for only 7 days after the run completes.
  • There might be a delay between when a workflow runs and when its results display on the Recent runs page. If the results for a recent workflow aren't available yet, then wait a few minutes and try again.

Steps:

  1. On the Recent runs page, click the Time filter in the search toolbar.
  2. In the From field, enter a date and time that is equal to the time that the event should have happened. For example, for an Order created trigger, use the time that the order was created. Ensure that you enter the correct AM/PM.
  3. In the To field, enter a date and time that is 10 minutes after the From date and time.
  4. Review the search results. Workflows typically run at exactly the same time as a triggering event or shortly afterwards. Click a result that matches the time and verify that the displayed resource matches the resource that you're looking for, such as the order.

Example of a time filter

Viewing the details for a workflow run

To access detailed information about an individual workflow, click the workflow name.

The Status section indicates whether the workflow was completed.

The Actions section indicates how many actions in the workflow ran successfully. For the full list of actions and whether they were taken, click X actions succeeded.

The Details section displays a preview of the workflow.

  • A teal symbol represents conditions that were met and actions that were taken.
  • A blue symbol represents a workflow that's been paused by using the Wait action.
  • A spinning icon appears next to a step that's currently running.
  • A badge displays next to a step if an error occurs.

Example of a run log for a workflow that adds customer tags based on a customer's lifetime spending

In this example, the workflow examines products that were recently updated, checks if the product type is test, and adds a tag to those products.

Following the workflow preview, a results section provides additional details.

  • The Started when... section indicates the trigger that started the workflow.
  • The Checked if... section indicates the conditions that were checked and whether the conditions were met.
  • The For each... section indicates the number of items in the selected list and if any errors occurred when the step ran.
  • The Did this... section indicates the actions that were taken by the workflow.
  • The Results section displays the following information, accompanied by date and time:

Example of the results section of a run log for a workflow that adds customer tags based on a customer's lifetime spending

Monitoring workflows that use the For each action

Workflows that include the For each action repeat actions several times. Because of this, the following is true for the Recent runs page for workflows that contain a For each action:

  • The Status and Action sections apply to all the actions taken by the For each action. If any errors occur, then the number of errors displays.
  • The Details section, including the preview of the workflow, apply only to the last action that the For each action has taken.

Troubleshooting workflow runs

In some cases, a workflow run can encounter an error or not run as intended. Most commonly, this occurs when there is a configuration issue with the workflow. Learn more about troubleshooting Flow errors and retrying workflow runs to retroactively fix the result of past runs.

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