Executions & Logs

Every time a workflow runs, Voodflow creates a detailed Execution record that captures the full state of the run — inputs, outputs, timing, variables, and errors at both the workflow and per-node level.

Execution Lifecycle

pending → running → success
                 → failed
                 → cancelled
                 → waiting  → (resume) → running → …

Dry-run executions (is_dry_run) skip external side effects while still recording node outcomes — see Ops.

Execution Record Fields

Per-Node Execution Records

Each node execution is recorded in voodflow_execution_nodes:

Browsing Executions

Navigate to Voodflow → Executions to see a paginated table of all executions with:

• Workflow name
• Status badge
• Trigger type
• Start time and duration
• Quick link to per-node details

Click any execution row to drill into the Execution Detail view, which shows a timeline of every node with expandable input/output panels.

Log Entries

ExecutionLogEntry records are structured log lines emitted during execution:

execution_id | node_id | level | message | context | created_at

Levels: debug, info, warning, error

These logs are visible in the Execution Detail view and queryable via the Eloquent model:

$execution->logs()->where('level', 'error')->get();

Log Retention

Execution records and log entries can be automatically pruned to control database growth. This is done via the voodflow:cleanup-logs command:

php artisan voodflow:cleanup-logs

Default retention is taken from VoodflowSettings->log_retention_days. In addition, each workflow can override the retention window via workflow.metadata['log_retention_days'] (so you can keep logs longer for important workflows, and shorter for low-value ones).

You can also run targeted cleanup:

# Use a specific retention window (override the default)
php artisan voodflow:cleanup-logs --days=30

# Cleanup only one workflow by ID
php artisan voodflow:cleanup-logs --workflow=123

See Log Retention for a full retention policy guide, including GDPR considerations.

Retry Logic

Failed executions can be retried:

1. Automatic retry (per workflow) — Voodflow reads the retry configuration from workflow.metadata.retry_policy and uses the queue worker retries to re-attempt the same Execution when a retryable error occurs (network / timeout / rate limit). Automatic retry is driven by the job being retried by the queue worker; it does not depend on the presence of a Catch node. After retries are exhausted (or for non-retryable errors), the execution is marked as failed and (if a Catch node is connected after the failing step) the workflow can route to an error/recovery branch.
2. Manual retry / Resume — in the Execution detail view, click Resume Execution to re-run from where it failed (this increments retry_attempt).

Catch behavior (success vs error)

Catch is designed to sit immediately after a node that may fail (e.g. send_webhook) and route to one of two outputs:

• success: upstream node succeeded (normal pass-through)
• error: upstream node failed (Catch enriches output with _caught_error when enabled)

Important: Voodflow treats Catch as a gate based on the incoming payload. It will not re-catch historical errors from earlier attempts once the upstream node succeeds (e.g. after a manual resume).

Manual vs Auto counters

• retry_attempt counts manual resume attempts (0 = never resumed, 1+ = resumed by a user).
• Automatic queue retries are tracked in context.meta:
  • queue_attempt: 0-based attempt index (0 on first run, 1 on first automatic retry, ...)
  • queue_attempt_number: 1-based attempt number (Laravel queue)
  • queue_laravel_attempt_number: raw Laravel attempts() value (diagnostics)
  • queue_max_attempts: configured max attempts for this job
  • queue_next_attempt_number and queue_next_delay_ms: when an auto-retry is scheduled

Manual resume does not create a new Execution record — it resumes the same execution and increments retry_attempt.

Context Object Structure

The context JSON column contains the full execution state:

{
  "meta": {
    "workflow_id": 42,
    "started_at": "2025-03-16T08:00:00Z"
  },
  "vars": {
    "my_variable": "some_value"
  },
  "nodes": {
    "node_uuid_1": { "output": { ... }, "status": "success" },
    "node_uuid_2": { "output": { ... }, "status": "success" }
  },
  "errors": []
}