Monitoring Automation Runs
Track automation execution and step details
Monitoring Automation Runs
An automation "run" represents a single contact's journey through an automation workflow. Monitoring runs lets you verify that automations are executing correctly, track contact progress, and identify issues before they affect a large number of contacts.
Accessing the run monitor
- Navigate to Automations in the sidebar.
- Open the automation you want to monitor.
- Look for the Runs or Activity tab on the automation detail page.
- The run list displays all contacts who have been enrolled in the automation.
Run statuses
Each run has a status that indicates its current state:
- Active — The contact is currently progressing through the automation. They may be waiting on a delay step or about to execute the next action.
- Completed — The contact has reached the end of the automation and all steps have been executed.
- Processing — A step is currently being executed for this contact. This is a transient state that typically lasts only seconds.
- Failed — An error occurred while executing a step. See the Troubleshooting Failed Runs article for details.
- Paused — The automation was deactivated while this contact was in progress.
Viewing run details
Click on any run to see its detailed history:
- Step timeline: A chronological list of every step the contact has passed through, with timestamps.
- Current step: Where the contact is right now in the automation flow.
- Step outcomes: For condition steps, which branch was taken. For email steps, whether the email was sent or skipped (e.g., due to frequency capping).
- Errors: If any step failed, the error message and details are shown.
Stall recovery
Occasionally, a run can get stuck in a "processing" state due to a worker interruption. Mailnaptic automatically recovers stalled runs:
- The automation worker checks for runs stuck in "processing" for more than 10 minutes.
- Stalled runs are reset to a "retrying" state and re-processed.
- This recovery happens automatically at the start of each worker cycle.
If you see runs in a "processing" state for extended periods, the automatic recovery will handle them. No manual intervention is needed in most cases.
Monitoring at scale
For automations with many active runs, use the monitoring view to:
- Filter runs by status (active, completed, failed).
- Search for a specific contact's run by email address.
- Sort by enrollment date or last activity.
- View aggregate statistics: total enrolled, completed, failed, in progress.
Best practices
- Check the run monitor regularly, especially after activating a new automation or making changes.
- Investigate failed runs promptly — they may indicate a configuration issue that affects all future contacts.
- Monitor the ratio of completed to failed runs. A healthy automation should have a very low failure rate.
- Use run details to verify that conditions are routing contacts to the expected branches.
The run monitor is your window into how automations are performing in real time. Make it part of your regular workflow to check on active automations.