Skip to main content
All administration pages live under Settings → Admin → Workflow and require administrator access.

Workflow Definitions

The Workflow Definitions page lists every workflow with its name, ID, status badge (Draft / Published), anchor type, and creation and publish timestamps. Filter by name, status, or anchor type; click a row to open it in the designer.

Workflow Instances

The Workflow Instances page searches across every run of every workflow. Filter by:
  • Workflow (multi-select)
  • StatusRunning, Failed, or Completed
  • Anchor — document or WorkView, optionally a specific ID (to answer “what workflows touched this document?”)
  • Date range
Results show the workflow, the current step (by display name), status, timestamps, and the anchored document or object, loading more as you scroll.

Instance detail

Opening an instance shows everything about the run:
  • Variables — the instance’s current variable bag
  • Live tasks — task transitions currently waiting for a user
  • Timers — armed timer transitions and when they fire
  • History — the full append-only audit timeline
Each history event records what happened, where (node and action), who caused it (the user, or the service account for automated steps), and when:
EventMeaning
instance.createdThe run started — records the trigger, seed variables, and definition version
node.entered / node.exitedThe instance arrived at / left a step
transition.firedAn edge was taken
action.started / action.completed / action.failedAn action ran
instance.completedA terminal node was reached (or Workflow.End ran)
instance.failedThe run halted on a failure with no error node to absorb it
instance.replayedAn administrator replayed a failed run

Handling failures

When an action fails:
  1. The instance’s variables roll back to their state at node entry
  2. The instance routes to the error node — the node-level override if set, otherwise the workflow-level one — with two variables describing the failure: instance._error.action (which action failed) and instance._error.message (why)
  3. If no error node is configured, the instance is marked Failed
A failed instance is never lost: from the instances list you can retry it, or replay it — optionally correcting variables first when bad data caused the failure. The engine does not retry automatically, so design error nodes for the failures you expect (for example, a task transition asking someone to fix a keyword and try again) and use replay for the rest.

Environment variables and secrets

The Workflow Variables page manages the configuration workflows reference:
  • Environment variables (env.<name>) — plain-text settings such as an SMTP host, shared by all workflows
  • Secrets (secrets.<name>) — encrypted at rest, decrypted only at the moment an action parameter is resolved, never written to history, and audit-logged on access. Secrets cannot be used in guards or trigger filters.
Keeping host names and credentials here — rather than hardcoded in definitions — lets the same definition move between environments unchanged.

Troubleshooting

SymptomLikely causeWhat to do
Events happen but no instance startsThe workflow is a draft, the item is outside the scope, the trigger filter doesn’t match, or an active instance already exists for that itemPublish the workflow; check scope and filter against the event; look for the existing instance
An instance sits on a node foreverA non-terminal node with no passing transition — guards are evaluated once on node entryCheck the node’s transitions and guards; validation warns about nodes with no outgoing transitions
An instance is FailedAn action failed and no error node was configuredOpen the history to find the action.failed event, fix the cause, then replay
A user can’t see a taskThe task’s Visible to groups don’t include themCheck the transition’s visibility groups against the user’s group membership
An email action failsSMTP settings missing or wrongConfirm the env.* / secrets.* values the action references exist on the Workflow Variables page

Building workflows in the designer

Error nodes, validation, and the publish flow these pages monitor.

Administration & governance

Platform-wide audit, permissions, and observability.