How do I handle a failed task?

When working with workflows in MESA, you may encounter some failed tasks on the Activity tab or by manually running your workflow. The workflow will not process the automation completely if an error occurs during any tasks of the workflow.

Follow the steps below on how to troubleshoot an error that occurs during any tasks of the workflow.

Manual Run Feature

While using MESA's Manual Run feature, you may encounter some failed tasks. This Manual Run feature is available in the Trigger step of your workflow or the Run workflow button in the Builder tab.

If you see an error appearing like below, you can check the error message under the failed task. In this example, the error message states "Please select a connection."

Switch to the Logs view in the task options of a run to get more information regarding how the manual run processed. Go back to the Activity tab once you are done viewing.

In this particular case, you will need to select or create a connection and fill out the Spreadsheet or Sheet Name in the Google Sheets Create Row step. You would make these changes in the Builder tab and save your changes.

Go back to the task in the Activity and click Replay from this task in the Task options. Check to see if your changes have resolved the error.

Logging debug mode

If you find that you are still unable to resolve the error, you can do additional troubleshooting by turning on Logging debug mode in the workflow's Acitivity tab.

1. In the Activity tab, turn on Debug Logs while troubleshooting any errors. You can turn off debug logs mode once you are done with troubleshooting.

2. Scroll or search within the Activity tab and locate the failed task which will contain an Error status on the left-hand side.

3. Click on the checkbox to the left of the task to select it.

4. Replay the entire workflow starting from the Trigger while Logging debug mode is turned on. You can click on the Bulk actions while the run is selected. Click Replay entire workflow to replay the run.

5. MESA provides a more detailed layout under the Logs page. Logs enable you to search for past tasks or to view an entire chain of actions and their information for a specific task. You click on the Run Options (three-vertical-dot icon) on the selected run and click on Logs.

Since Logging and Logging debug mode are turned on, you will see more information related to the failed task appear.

The messages with the red Error tag will be the most important to review.

7. Once you have made adjustments to your workflow to fix the error, you can replay the failed task.