Testing a workflow with the Test action

The Test action in the CloudRadial AutomationAI Designer runs your current draft on a real runner without publishing it or affecting your deployments. This article is for the Admin and Owner roles and explains what a test run produces, where its results appear, and how it stays separate from your deployed versions.

We'll follow three main steps:

1. Running a test
2. Understanding what a test version is
3. Reading the results

Step 1: Running a Test

Why are we doing this? A test lets you try your draft on a real runner before you publish it or run it for real.

In the Designer, select Test draft in the toolbar.

Important -> A test runs your draft on a deployment's runner, so the workflow must already have an active deployment. Until one exists, the toolbar shows Deploy instead of the test action, so publish and deploy the workflow once first.

In the test panel you can:

• Supply optional trigger input as JSON
• Choose which deployment's runner will execute the draft
• Select Run test to begin

You can also test a single node from its editor with Test node.

Step 2: Understanding What a Test Version Is

Why are we doing this? Knowing that testing does not publish reassures you it will not touch your live deployment.

Testing does not publish your draft. Instead, AutomationAI snapshots the current draft as an immutable test version with a pre-release version label and runs that. This keeps the test reproducible while leaving your editable draft untouched, so you can keep building and test again as often as you like.

Step 3: Reading the Results

Why are we doing this? The results tell you whether each step worked before you rely on the workflow.

The test panel shows the outcome of the run, including each step's status, its logs, and the output it produced. Use the run-again control in the panel to test the draft after making edits, or cancel a run that is still in progress.

Test Runs Stay Out of Deployments

Test versions are never treated as the workflow's latest published version and are hidden from the deployment selectors, so a test can never be deployed by accident. Only release versions you create with Publish can be deployed. For the distinction between release and test versions, see Understanding workflow versions (draft vs. published).

If you are still having trouble, we're here to help! Submit a ticket here for assistance, and don't forget to check our status page to ensure there are no outages in your area.