Catalytic is now PagerDuty Workflow Automation

Workflow: Start another Workflow

Use this action to start an instance of another Workflow from within a current process. The newly started Workflow is called a Helper Workflow or subprocess and is a helpful way to call in help from other ready-to-go Workflows.

This action cannot be used to start itself and only works on other Workflows.

Use case

This action can help coordinate and link different Workflow’s together. Teams can create Workflow’s for different business processes and start those Workflow’s from a starter Workflow using this action.

When you build a new Workflow, you can call in help from these ready-to-go Workflows instead of re-adding actions to perform a common automation your team already has a Workflow for.

This helps simplify Workflow management to save specific, repeated business processes as standalone Workflows, like a file upload workflow to upload items to your team’s cloud storage.

How to configure this action

Use this action in one Workflow to start a different Workflow. You must create a second Workflow for this action to start.

All field values in the starter Workflow will be available in the Helper Workflow. However, the field values in the Helper Workflow will not be accessible in the starter Workflow.

💡   Tip: If you test a Workflow with this action, the subprocesses will start in test mode as well.

Fields for this action

  • Process

    • Select a Workflow to start from a list of all Workflows available on your team. The list only includes Workflows you have permission to view.
      • You can also reference a Workflow stored in a field. Change the left hand drop-down to Use table via field then select from any field that is part of the process. Learn more.
      • If necessary, you can enter the Workflow ID directly. Change the left hand drop-down to Use table by ID then enter the ID manually. Learn more.
  • Run name

    • Input a run name for the new Workflow instance. You can use a combination of field references and text.
  • Owner

    • Enter the username of an owner for the new Workflow. If the current run owner will be the owner, input {{run.owner.username}}. If left blank, the owner will default to the owner of the Workflow.
    • ✅   Heads-up: For this action, you must use the username and not the email. If you need to find a specific username, see How to find a username for a team member
  • Deadline

    • Select True or False from the drop down to se whether or not the subprocesses should inherit the deadline from the parent Workflow.
      • Select True to pass the process deadline to each sub-process.
      • Select False or leave blank to set no deadline for the sub-process.
  • Mark action as completed immediately

    • Select True or False from the drop down to set when this action should be marked as completed. The best option will depend on how your Workflow conditions and dependencies are configured.
      • Select True and this action will be marked as complete when the new Workflow starts.
      • Select False or leave blank and this action will be marked as complete when the new Workflow is completed.
  • Output Field Prefix

    • To help keep output fields organized, choose an output field prefix to add to the beginning of each output field name as this action may output more than one field.
    • The step’s name is used as the prefix by default.

How to send values from a helper Workflow back to the parent Workflow

All field values in helper Workflow are available in the parent Workflow once the helper completes. When this action completes, it outputs fields as normal. Each field is accessible directly by the field reference name.

What will this output?

This action will start a new instance of a Helper Workflow and output information about the status and ID of the Helper Workflow.

This action may generate multiple fields. To help keep output fields organized, the prefix above will be added to the beginning of each of the output field names, separated by two dashes. Each field will result as:{{output-field-prefix--output-field}}. Learn more

Output fields for this action

  • Run Status

    • Tracks the status of the new Workflow. The options are completed, running, cancelled or failed.
  • Run ID

    • The run ID for the newly started Workflow instance.

Get help with a problem or question

If something’s not working as expected, or you’re looking for suggestions, check through the options below.

How to find a username for a team member

Usernames have been mostly deprecated in PagerDuty Workflow Automation. Full names and email addresses have mostly replaced them. Some actions or settings still require the username. To find the username for any team member, check the URL from their team page.

  1. Open the menu in the top navigation bar, and select Team.
  2. Select the Members tab if it is not already selected.
  3. Select a user whose username you wish to find

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  4. From the users profile page, check the URL bar in your browser. The username is the long string at the end of the url. For example, for the URL https://yourteam.pushbot.com/users/a0c673144_5e62_4f06_b860_6809b1054431, the username is a0c673144_5e62_4f06_b860_6809b1054431.

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