Drafts and publishing
A flow moves through three clearly separate stages: you edit it as a draft, you test that draft with Run Draft, and you publish it to create a version. Publishing alone doesn't put a flow to work — you then activate it so its trigger goes live. This page covers editing state, the version selector, the checks before publishing, publishing the current draft, and what comes next.
Permissions. Editing, publishing, and activating flows requires the Admin or Partner role. See Users and access.
Editing the draft
The draft is the working copy of a flow — the version you change in the builder. Your edits are saved automatically as you work, and a status badge shows where those changes stand:
- Synced — all your changes are saved.
- Saving — a save is in progress.
- Unsynced — you have changes that haven't been saved yet.
A draft is edited by one person at a time. If someone else is already editing, you'll see the draft as read-only until editing is handed over.
Connection state. The builder shows whether it's connected. If it's reconnecting or disconnected, your changes can't sync until the connection is restored — wait for it to reconnect before relying on the synced status.
The version selector
The version selector lets you switch between the Draft and any published versions of the flow:
- Draft is the editable working copy.
- A published version is a snapshot that was published earlier. Viewing one is read-only — to make changes, switch back to Draft.
A brand-new flow starts in Draft. A flow that already has published versions opens at its latest published version, and you switch to Draft to keep editing.
Before you publish
Publish from a draft that you've tested and that passes the builder's checks.
- Test it first. Run the draft with sample input and confirm each step behaves as expected. See Test and debug a draft.
- Resolve validation issues. The builder validates the flow's structure — every node should be connected into the flow (no orphaned nodes), and every connection and branch should lead to a real next step. The flow also needs a trigger. Fix any reported issues before publishing.
Publish the current draft
When the draft is ready, click Publish. Publishing creates a new published version of the flow from the current draft, recorded with when it was published and optionally a short note describing what changed. Your draft remains available for further editing after you publish.
Publishing creates the version; it does not by itself start processing. For the flow to run on its trigger, it must be active.
Go live: activate the flow
A flow is either active or inactive, shown by a badge next to the flow name:
- Active — the trigger is live and starts runs as new inputs arrive.
- Inactive — no new runs are triggered.
Activate the flow from the published version to put it to work. Deactivating stops new runs from starting; in-flight work isn't started again once the flow is deactivated.
Editing an active flow. You keep editing in the draft while the published, active version continues running. The flow doesn't pick up your changes until you publish a new version and activate it. The builder warns you when you start editing or deactivate an active flow so the change is deliberate.
After publishing
Once a flow is published and active, it processes real inputs. From here:
- Watch its runs. Use View Runs in the builder, or Run history, to confirm runs succeed and to investigate failures.
- Handle review items. Items the flow sends to review appear in Human review.
- Iterate safely. Make changes in the draft, test with Run Draft, then publish and activate a new version when you're confident — the active version keeps running in the meantime.
Where to go next
- Test and debug a draft — validate a draft before publishing.
- Configure environments and variables — the environment a published flow runs in.
- Run history — monitor a live flow's runs.
- Human review — act on items a flow flags.
- Build AI Agents — the full build lifecycle.