Workflows Article

Managing Workflows: Versions, Dry Run, Metrics, and Import/Export

Last updated: May 18, 2026 4 min read Intermediate

Managing Workflows

Once a workflow is live, ISO Mate provides a set of governance tools to help you evolve it safely. Versioning, audit logs, dry-run mode, metrics, and portable import and export all work together so you can change workflows with confidence.

Versioning

Every save creates a new version of the workflow definition. Open the Versions tab on any workflow to see the full history with the author, timestamp, and change summary.

Restoring a Version

  1. Open the workflow and switch to the Versions tab.
  2. Find the version you want to restore.
  3. Click Restore.
  4. The workflow is rolled back to that version in a single transaction.

Restores are blocked when the workflow has running or waiting executions, so you never interrupt work in flight. Version numbers are uniquely enforced per workflow.

Audit Log

The Audits tab records every definition change: who made it, when, and what fields changed. Combine this with the version history to trace the evolution of a workflow across its lifecycle.

Dry Run

Dry-run mode executes a workflow end to end against a real or synthetic entity with zero side effects. No records are created, no emails are sent, no external HTTP calls are made. Dry runs are ideal for verifying placeholder resolution and branch logic before enabling a workflow or pushing a risky change.

  1. Open the workflow.
  2. Click Dry Run.
  3. Pick a real record of the trigger entity, or supply a synthetic entity payload as JSON.
  4. Review the per-action output. Each action shows its resolved input, intended side effect, and output that would be produced in a real run.

Dry run is gated by the workflow_dry_run feature flag.

Metrics Dashboard

The Metrics tab shows success rate, execution count, and average duration per workflow over a rolling window (24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days). Use it to spot reliability problems, identify slow actions, and right-size retries.

An account-wide overview at Workflows > Metrics surfaces the worst performers across all workflows so you can find problems without opening each one individually. Metrics are gated by the workflow_metrics feature flag.

Execution Detail

Open any execution to see the full action trace: input, output, error message, number of retry attempts, and the wait duration for any deferred actions. Failed or terminated executions can be retried with the Retry button, which creates a fresh execution context and respects the current rate-limit budget.

Import and Export

Workflows can be exported as portable JSON and re-imported into any account. This makes it easy to promote a workflow from a staging account to production, or to share battle-tested automations between teams.

Exporting

  1. Open the workflow.
  2. Click Export.
  3. Save the JSON document.

The export replaces account-specific references (user IDs, mailbox IDs, channel IDs, object type IDs) with symbolic bindings. Nothing about the source account leaks into the exported document.

Importing

  1. In the target account, navigate to Workflows.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Upload the JSON document.
  4. Resolve each symbolic binding by picking a target in the account (a user, a mailbox, a channel, an object type, and so on).
  5. Confirm.

The workflow is created in disabled state so you can review it before enabling. Cycle detection blocks imports that would create a sub-workflow loop, and cross-account binding validation ensures every reference resolves to a real target in the new account. Import and export are gated by the workflow_import_export feature flag.

Webhook Credential Rotation

For webhook-triggered workflows, rotate the signing secret from the workflow detail page. The new secret is shown once and must be configured on the sending system. The old secret stops working immediately after rotation.

Manual Run Management

Workflows exposed as manual runs appear in the Run workflow button on compatible record detail pages (issues, tickets, tasks, leads, deals, opportunities, and contacts). Users need the workflow.run_manual permission to trigger a manual run.

Reliability Safeguards

Several safeguards operate automatically:

  • Rate limits: per-workflow throughput limits prevent one workflow from starving the dispatch queue. When drops accumulate, an alert is emitted on a 1-hour cooldown.
  • Cadence floors: scheduled workflows enforce a 5-minute minimum cadence. Inactivity thresholds in minutes must be at least 15 minutes.
  • Mailbox dependency tracking: if a shared mailbox is deactivated, deleted, or disconnected, every workflow that depends on it is auto-disabled and the author is notified.
  • Burst failure alerts: repeated action failures within a window emit a single alert per workflow with a cooldown so error storms do not become notification storms.
  • Transactional restores: version restores run inside a single transaction and cannot interrupt in-flight executions.

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