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🛠 Build🧠 Core ConceptsVersioning

Versioning

Versioning answers: How do Draft, Live, and saved versions relate when I change a workflow? Use it to preserve and restore known workflow states; use Operating Workflows for the full test-to-Live process.

Two things to know before you rely on versions: you save them yourself, and Draft controls whether triggers fire rather than holding a private copy of your edits.

Saving a version

You save a version when you want one. Give it a title and a description, and Glow snapshots the workflow as it stands. Editing a workflow or switching it to Live does not create one.

There is one exception. A checkpoint is taken before the Workflow Assistant generates into a workflow that already has steps. An assisted change is recoverable even if you did not think to save first.

Save a version before a change you would not want to redo by hand. If you have not been saving them, there is nothing to go back to. This is the point people discover the hard way. Treat it like a commit: cheap to make, and only useful if you made it beforehand.

Draft is a trigger switch, not a staging area

The status control offers two states. Draft is triggers disabled, manual runs only. Live is where triggers fire.

That is all it does. There is one copy of a workflow, and edits take effect the moment you make them, including while it is Live. Draft does not hold a private copy for you to work on and release later. It stops the workflow being triggered, nothing more.

Editing a Live workflow changes what runs on the next trigger, immediately. There is no publish step between your edit and production. To change a busy workflow safely, save a version first. Switch to Draft so triggers stop firing, make the change, test it with Run, then switch back to Live. Events arriving while it is in Draft are not processed, so weigh that against the risk of editing in place.

Restoring an earlier version

Open Version history from the canvas menu. Each entry shows its title, description, author and date.

Restore replaces the current workflow with that version, in full. Restores are themselves recorded, so the history shows what was rolled back and when.

Restore replaces the current workflow in full. Save a version of the current state before restoring an older one. Even a throwaway titled “before rollback” makes the step reversible.

Write descriptions that will still mean something to you in three months. The list is what you navigate by. The description is what tells one version from another.

To see an older version’s canvas, restore it and look. Save the current state as a version first and you can come straight back, so restoring is a way of browsing rather than a commitment.

What’s Next?

Error Handling & RetriesVisibility & Sharing