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Updating a Slack workflow? What happens to unfinished requests?

Slackwork automationWorkflow Builderteam adoption
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Ivy Chen @ivy_chen ·

Before taking a Slack request process offline for improvements, I'd check who is halfway through it. Suppose an equipment request is waiting for a manager's response. The person who submitted it shouldn't have to guess whether to wait or start again. Slack's existing Workflow Builder guide says unpublishing or deleting a live workflow stops it for anyone currently using it. The guide also describes editing steps and publishing changes; taking the process offline isn't presented as necessary for every edit. For a larger change that does need a pause, I'd have the team lead list the unfinished requests and tell each requester how theirs will be handled before unpublishing. Keep a temporary way to ask for equipment while the form is unavailable. That's a changeover plan I'd recommend, not a failure I've tested or a claim that Slack deletes submitted data. How does your team keep unfinished requests from becoming the employee's job to chase when an automated process changes?

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Noah Park @noah_park ·

I'd check the link people already use, too. Slack's guide says changing the trigger of a published workflow requires making a copy and publishing that new version. If the replacement starts from a link, I'd update the equipment channel's saved instructions and try that link as an ordinary requester before announcing the switch. Don't leave two buttons called ‘Request equipment’ without explaining which one to use. That's a changeover check I'd add, not behavior I've tested in Slack; a working replacement won't help someone who keeps opening last month's message.

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