Test and monitor workflow runs
Preview a workflow with a write-free safe test, run it live once with Run now, or activate it to run on its own, then watch every run step by step and retry only what failed.
Before you start
- A workflow that passes its checklist, so Save, Run and Activate are available.
A workflow only becomes trustworthy once you have watched it run. Spiich gives you three ways to start one, from safest to most permanent, and a run view that shows exactly what happened at every step.
Safe test, Run now, and Activate
| Action | What it does | Writes to your CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Safe test | Runs over a handful of records, defaulting to 5 (or the workflow's own Max records per run, if that is set) | No. Nothing is written. |
| Run now | Starts one run against live CRM data right away | Yes, real writes |
| Activate | Makes the current version the one that fires on its schedule or from a table | Yes, on every future run |
Safe test is the flask button in the workflow header. It still spends credits for any agent step, since the agent still has to do the work, but every CRM write is held back rather than applied. The run view says plainly, "Nothing was written. This was a test run.," and offers Test again so you can iterate quickly after fixing something.
Run now asks you to confirm first. The dialog spells out that this run can change CRM data, that stopping it will not undo changes already applied, and that any unsaved edits are saved as a new version before it starts. Use it once a safe test looks right and you want to see one real run before trusting the schedule.
Activate hands the workflow over to its own schedule or table trigger. The confirmation states in plain words when it will run from now on, the schedule in English with its timezone, or that nothing fires on its own if the trigger is Manual, and what each run can change, for example "Each run can add and update CRM records and write notes on them." Activation is refused if the current version fails validation.
Watching a run
Open any run from the workflow's Recent runs list, or from the sidebar. The run replays as the same graph you built: each step lights up as it is reached, and you can see which record is currently being worked, how many are done, how many remain, elapsed time, and credits used so far. Click any step to see exactly what happened there, including an agent's output and what it wrote to the CRM.
A side panel gives you the outcome in plain words, the counts that actually happened (records fetched, processed, enriched, partial, skipped), Run details (Started, Duration, Started by, Version), and a list of recent runs so you can compare. Open technical report goes deeper for anyone who wants the raw detail.
A run's status is one of Waiting, In progress, Paused, Finished, Needs attention, Couldn't finish, or Stopped.
Pausing, resuming and stopping
Open the active run
It shows a spinner in Recent runs while it is going.
Pause, resume or stop it
Pause finishes whatever step is already under way and starts nothing new until you resume. Stop asks first: queued work stops, a step already in progress may still finish, and CRM changes already applied are not undone.
Read what survived
A stopped run keeps everything it already completed. Nothing is lost, and nothing already written is rolled back.
Retrying only what failed
A finished run with failures offers Try the failed steps again on the run summary, or on an individual failed step. Work that already succeeded is reused rather than repeated, so nothing already written is charged or written twice. You can also retry within just one failed record's scope rather than the whole run.
Reading a failure
When a run fails, the run view names the exact step that stopped it and translates the underlying problem into plain words instead of a raw error. Common ones include the workspace running out of credits, something taking too long and timing out, missing permission to do the work, a connected service being busy, a step with no CRM record to write to, or a record filter Spiich cannot read.
You can also hand a failed step straight to the assistant: open the run, select the failed step, and use the ask-the-assistant action on it. It already has the run, the step, the record it failed on and the reported error, so you can just ask why it failed and what to change.
Credits and running out mid-run
Agent steps run on usage-based credits, charged as they run, which is why safe tests still use credits even though nothing is written. If a run stops because the workspace cannot spend, the run view says so in plain language and links straight to billing rather than offering a retry that cannot succeed: Add credits, then try again on the run summary, or Add credits in billing on the failed step, both of which go to Settings > Billing.
Building and testing a workflow by talking to the assistant
You can describe a workflow to the assistant in Chat instead of building it on the canvas by hand. Say what you want, for example "every Monday go through my accounts that have gone quiet and research them," and the assistant opens a new workflow beside the conversation as an artifact and builds it up step by step, showing which step it is touching as it works. Keep chatting to ask for changes, or switch to the canvas and edit it directly.
The assistant can also open an existing workflow by name, read its steps and settings, make targeted edits and save a new version, and list or inspect past runs. It can start a safe test on your behalf and report what happened.
There is one hard limit worth knowing before you rely on this: the assistant can build, edit and safe-test a workflow, but it can never start a live run. Ask it to run the workflow for real and it hands the workflow back to you and tells you to press Run yourself. A run that can change your CRM always needs a person to confirm it.
If something goes wrong
A run has said "In progress" for hours and never finishes. It stalled. Open it and click Stop. Everything it already completed stays readable.
"Could not load runs" or the run history will not load. Usually a brief unavailability during a deploy. Click Try again; nothing already recorded is lost.
A step reports "This step had no CRM record to write to." A note or update step points at a value that did not resolve to a record. Reopen the step and re-pick the record from the dropdown of values earlier steps produced, rather than typing a reference by hand.
A run's summary looks fine but the workflow "Couldn't finish." The failing step usually sits outside the per-record loop, like the step that fetches the records in the first place. Read the run summary; it names the exact step and explains why in plain words, then use Try the failed steps again.