Pause, resume, or cancel a run

When a run is taking an action you did not intend, or you need to hold it while you fix something upstream, you control it from the run detail page. This page shows the three controls (Pause, Resume, Cancel), when each one is available, and what happens when an action is blocked.

When to use this

Use these controls when a run is still moving and you want to change course:

• A run is doing the wrong thing and you want to stop it before it does more.
• You need to hold a run while you reconnect an integration or fix a downstream system, then continue it.
• A run is stuck and you want to end it so you can re-run from scratch.

These controls act on a single run. They do not stop the workflow itself from accepting new events. To stop a workflow from dispatching, change its status from the workflow page.

If a run already finished (status completed, failed, or cancelled), there is nothing to control. To run it again, see Replay a run.

Which action each status allows

The run detail page only shows the controls that are valid for the run's current status. The buttons appear and disappear based on the status badge at the top of the run.

The rules behind the table:

• Pause shows only when the run is running or pending.
• Resume shows only when the run is paused.
• Cancel shows for any status that is not already terminal, which means everything except completed, failed, and cancelled.

A waiting run is parked on something it cannot continue past on its own, such as a delay timer, an approval, or a form submission. You cannot pause or resume a waiting run directly, but you can cancel it. For why a run is waiting and how each kind resumes, see Run and step statuses.

Pause a run

1. Open the run

   Go to the run list at /{workspaceSlug}/monitoring/workflow-runs, then click the Run ID to open the run detail page.

2. Click Pause

   The Pause button is in the header next to the status badge. It is only there when the run is running or pending.

3. Confirm the status changed

   A toast reads "Workflow run paused" and the status badge turns yellow with a Pause icon. Pending and running steps stop where they are.

Resume a run

A paused run keeps its place. Resuming it picks up from where it stopped rather than starting over.

1. Open the paused run

   On the run detail page, confirm the status badge reads paused.

2. Click Resume

   The Resume button appears only for paused runs. Clicking it continues the run from where it was held.

3. Confirm it is running again

   A toast reads "Workflow run resumed" and the status returns to running.

Cancel a run

Cancelling is permanent. It stops every pending and running step and moves the run to the terminal cancelled status. You cannot resume a cancelled run; you can only replay it as a fresh run.

1. Click Cancel

   The Cancel button shows for any run that has not already finished. It is styled as a destructive action.

2. Optionally enter a reason

   A dialog titled "Cancel workflow run?" opens with the warning "This will cancel all pending and running steps. This action cannot be undone." Type a note in the "Reason for cancellation (optional)" field if you want one recorded. If you leave it blank, the reason is recorded as "Cancelled by user".

3. Confirm

   Click "Cancel run" to confirm, or "Keep running" to back out without changing anything. On success a toast reads "Workflow run cancelled" and the status badge turns to cancelled.

Verify it worked

After any action, check two things on the run detail page:

• The status badge at the top reflects the new state: yellow paused, blue running, or the outline cancelled badge.
• A success toast confirmed the action ("Workflow run paused", "Workflow run resumed", or "Workflow run cancelled").

If the badge did not change, the action did not take effect. See the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

The action failed with "State changed; please refresh"

The run's status is enforced on the server, separately from which buttons the page shows you. If you act on a run whose status changed in another tab or by the runtime itself between page loads, the action is rejected rather than applied silently. You see a "Failed to pause workflow run" (or resume / cancel) toast, and the server returns a 409 with the message "State changed; please refresh".

Reload the page with the Refresh button to pull the current status, then act again.

The action failed because the run already finished

If the run reached completed, failed, or cancelled between your page load and your click, the server rejects the transition with a 409 (it returns the specific transition error message, for example that the run is already in a terminal state). The buttons for an invalid action will not normally render, so this happens only with a stale page. Refresh and confirm the run's real status.

You do not see any control buttons

If the run is completed, failed, or cancelled, there are no controls to show, because every transition from a terminal status is invalid. This is expected. To re-run it, use Replay a run.

If the run is active but you still see no buttons, you may not have monitoring access in this workspace. The control endpoints reject unauthorized requests with a 401, and requests without permission with a 403.

Related

• Read a run in detail covers the rest of the run detail page: the overview metadata, trigger payload, and step-by-step timeline.
• Run and step statuses defines all seven run statuses and the next action for each.
• Replay a run is how you re-run a finished run, since the controls on this page only act on runs that are still in progress.