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A workflow that runs on its own can fail with nobody watching: a website it calls changes its address, a key expires. Hiveku can email you when that happens, shows what went wrong, and pauses a workflow that keeps failing until you fix it. This guide follows a Northwind workflow that pulls green coffee prices from an importer every 15 minutes. Its web address was wrong, so every run failed.

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Get an email when a run fails

In the workflow, click the gear at the top right and switch on Email admins when a triggered run fails. Account owners and admins then get an email when a run the workflow started on its own fails. You get one email per problem, not one per failed run, and a Test Run never sends one.
The gear button, outlined, and its menu with Email admins when a triggered run fails, One email per incident. Test runs never alert, switched on and outlined

Failure emails, switched on

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See that it failed

On the Workflows page, click Manage next to All Workflows. A failed run shows in Needs your attention at the top: click it to read the error. The workflow’s row says how many runs have failed in a row.
Needs your attention: Workflow Pull green coffee prices failed, opened, with the error from the API Call step, outlined, and Dismiss

A failed run, in Needs your attention

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Find the step that failed

1

Open the failed run

Open the workflow and click Runs. Failed runs are red and say which step failed. Click one.
2

Click the red step

Its panel shows the Error. Here the API Call step could not reach its address, because the address was wrong.
The API Call step marked Failed with its Error box, outlined, and two failed Scheduled runs in Run History, outlined

The failed step and its error

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When it keeps failing, it pauses

When 5 runs in a row fail, and the workflow started them itself, for example on a schedule, Hiveku pauses it so it stops failing. Owners and admins get an email that it was paused, and Needs your attention says so too.
Needs your attention: Workflow Pull green coffee prices was paused, opened: it is no longer running, it was auto-paused after repeated failures, fix the failing step, then re-enable it in the workflow editor. Details: 5 consecutive failed runs. Outlined

The pause, in Needs your attention

In the list, the workflow reads Paused, and Paused above the list shows only the paused ones.
The Paused filter with 1, outlined; the Pull green coffee prices row with the status Paused, outlined, and Last run Failed, 5 failures in a row, outlined

Paused, after 5 failures in a row

A workflow that a webhook or a new website visitor starts never pauses, so you never miss a lead. With failure emails on, you still hear about each problem.

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Fix it, test it, and switch it back on

1

Open the workflow

A red bar across the top says the workflow is paused and its triggers are ignored.
Workflow paused, triggers are ignored: This workflow was auto-paused after 5 consecutive failed runs. Investigate the failures before resuming. The Resume workflow button outlined

Paused, with Resume workflow

2

Fix the step

Click the step that failed and correct what the error named. Here the address was wrong, so the URL gets one that works. Click Save Workflow.
The API Call step's settings with the corrected URL, outlined

The corrected address

3

Test it

Click Test Run. When every step is done, the banner reads Test completed.
Test completed, 2/2 steps, outlined, and the API Call step marked Done, outlined

The fixed workflow, tested

4

Resume it

Click Resume workflow in the red bar. The bar goes, and the workflow runs again from its next scheduled time.
5

Check the next run

After the next scheduled time, open the workflow’s runs (on the Manage page, the workflow’s menu, then View executions). Its first run after the fix is Completed.
The workflow's runs: a Scheduled run, Completed, 2/2 steps, outlined, above the Test run and two earlier Scheduled runs that Failed at API Call

Completed again, after the failures

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Good to know

  • Not every failure needs you. A run can fail once because a website was briefly down. The notice says the workflow will run again on its next trigger; if the next runs work, there is nothing to fix.
  • Dismiss clears a notice from Needs your attention once you have dealt with it. A new problem raises a new one.
  • Test runs never pause a workflow or send a failure email, so you can test as often as you like while you fix it.
  • More: See What a Workflow Did and Workflows.