Know which execution you are choosing
Test inspects the current workflow draft with a product or supported content context. Run now starts a real execution from the saved draft. Scheduled runs use the published workflow version while the Automation is active.
These modes serve different tasks. A published workflow is an execution definition; products and blog articles require their own publishing actions.
What Test does
Test simulates Shopify writes. AI generation, web research and image generation can still call the provider and use Credits. Preview output and test records can be stored in Skuze. Test is not a free, side-effect-free AI sandbox.
Inspect the actual output, selected fields, research sources and errors. Check whether the next action is appropriate before moving to a real run.
What Run now does
Run now uses the current saved draft and can change Shopify. It does not require the scheduled version to be published first. A selected product must meet the applicable input rules unless you explicitly choose a supported reprocess action.
Only one active run per Automation can be queued, running or waiting at a time. Check an existing run before starting another.
How schedules work
Choose every hour, every 4, 6 or 12 hours, daily, selected weekdays or manual only. Advanced scheduling includes a timezone override, quiet hours, an end date and an occurrence limit.
Products each interval controls the requested batch size, with additional execution-policy limits. Scheduled selection and background workers determine when work starts; a clock time is not a guaranteed completion time.
Product is new or changed watches relevant product content and the workflow revision. It does not watch every price, inventory or arbitrary metafield change. Scheduled content has no current product and accepts only content-compatible steps.
Read waiting states
A run can wait for approval, a configured delay, a retry or rate limiting. Approval resumes the next step after an Approve decision; Reject ends that workflow path. Earlier Shopify writes are neither held back nor undone.
If Shopify authorization expires, you may need to reconnect the store. Do not assume every authorization error is a special waiting state that automatically resumes after reconnecting.
Investigate and retry
Run detail records step status, results, errors, source links and Credits. Execution policy can retry a failed step with a delay and a maximum number of attempts. Where available, Retry from failed step creates a new retry run using the saved workflow snapshot and usable earlier results.
Review the error and any external result before retrying. A failed network response does not prove an external change never happened. Stop prevents later steps from starting; an external request already sent may still finish, and previous changes remain made.
Keep the version intentional
Publish a reviewed draft for future scheduled runs. Version history can restore an earlier configuration as a new draft, which you can inspect and publish. Restoring a workflow version does not roll back Shopify content.