Updating Runs When a Workflow Changes
Runs are a copy of the workflow taken at the moment they started, so editing a workflow leaves runs already in progress untouched. When you want a fix to reach work that is already under way, you push it to those runs deliberately.
Push changes to in-progress runs
- Edit the workflow and save your changes.
- Click Update Runs in the workflow editor toolbar. The button appears only when there are runs eligible to receive the change.
- A dialog lists the in-progress runs, all ticked by default.
- Untick any run you want to leave alone, then click Update Selected Runs.
The update runs in the background. Each run picks up the workflow as it now stands: added steps, removed steps, retitled steps, reordered steps, changed instructions.
Which runs can be updated
Two conditions decide whether a run appears in that list, and the second one surprises people.
- It has to be scheduled or in progress. Completed and archived runs are history and are left as they were.
- It must not have been customized. Once anyone edits a run directly, by adding a step to that run for instance, it stops tracking the workflow permanently and will never appear in this list again.
That second rule is deliberate: a customized run contains decisions somebody made for that specific piece of work, and pushing the workflow over it would throw them away. The cost is that a run you tweaked once can never be brought back into line automatically, so customize a run only when you mean it.
If the Update Runs button is missing entirely, either nothing has changed since the runs were created or every in-progress run has been customized.
Choosing which runs
You do not have to update everything. The tick boxes let you apply a change to some runs and not others, which matters when a workflow serves several teams and only one of them asked for the change. See Choose specific runs when updating from workflow changes.
What this does not change
Updating brings the workflow's structure and content to the run. Work already done stays done: completed steps stay completed, collected data stays, comments stay. It is not a reset.