You can spend hours in the editor making a flow perfect; for anything to reach a customer you still have to press one button. This is almost the only cause of the complaint "I fixed the flow but the old message still goes out". This guide explains what publishing does, how the three states differ, and why publishing gets blocked.
⚠️ Note: The Publish button and the on/off switch are only drawn for roles with publish rights (owner, admin, editor). Agents and viewers can see the flow but cannot take it live.
What you will find in this article
The three states: Draft, Live, Off
What the Publish button does
When publishing is blocked
Turning an automation on and off
Unpublished changes
What happens to running sessions
Common mistakes
The three states: Draft, Live, Off
Every automation has a state, shown as a badge in the list and on the line under the name in the editor:
Draft — The automation was never published. You can work on it; it messages nobody and its triggers do not fire.
Live — A version is published and the automation is on. Its triggers fire.
Off — It has a published version but the automation was switched off. Its triggers do not fire.
The difference between Draft and Off matters: Draft means "never published", Off means "published but currently stopped". You can turn an automation that is off back on with a single switch; a draft has to be published first.
What the Publish button does
When you press the rocket-marked Publish button at the top right of the editor, this happens in order:
Any pending draft save is finished. If the canvas has an unsaved change it is saved first. If it cannot be saved, nothing is published.
The flow is checked. The pre-publish check runs. A single error stops publishing.
The plan limit is checked. If you have reached the number of automations you can keep live at once, nothing is published.
An immutable version is created. The draft as it stands is frozen as v1, v2, v3…
The automation moves to Live and its triggers are bound to this new version.
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The unpublished-changes mark disappears.
When it finishes, a notice appears at the bottom of the screen: v3 published. If there were warnings, their count is included: v3 published (2 warnings).
✅ Publishing history is never deleted. Every publish is added as a new version; the old one stays on the Versions tab and you can go back whenever you like (Versions and rolling back).
When publishing is blocked
The flow has errors
If pressing the button seems to do nothing and the Pre-publish check list opens by itself, the flow has errors. Rows with a red dot block publishing. The most common ones:
The flow has no start step or The flow has more than one start.
Add at least one trigger.
Connect the start to a step.
The message text is empty.
A button label is empty.
Add a rule to the condition / Add an action.
Choose the automation to start or The chosen automation isn't live.
Clicking a row takes the editor straight to that step.
Amber warnings do not block publishing. It publishes, but the notice includes the warning count and you are expected to read what they say.
The plan limit is full
Your plan decides how many automations can be live at once. When that limit is full you cannot publish a new automation or turn a switched-off one back on. There are two fixes: turn off an automation you are not using, or upgrade the plan. See Plan limit warnings.
The automation is in the trash
A trashed automation cannot be published. Press Restore in the amber banner at the top, then publish.
Turning an automation on and off
A published automation has a switch in its top bar. While it is on, triggers fire; when you turn it off:
Triggers stop; no new session starts.
Every running session in that automation is cancelled. The reason shows in the logs as Automation turned off.
The automation stays in the list with an Off badge.
The notice says it plainly: Automation turned off; running sessions stopped.
You can do the same from the row menu in the automations list (Turn on / Turn off) or from the bulk action bar.
⚠️ Note: You cannot turn on an automation that was never published; the switch is not drawn. You have to press Publish first.
Unpublished changes
The moment you touch anything on the canvas after publishing, the draft diverges from the live version again. You will see this in three places:
In the list — A small amber dot beside the name; hovering it reads Unpublished changes.
In the editor — The same words at the end of the state line under the name.
On the Versions tab — An amber line above the list: The draft has unpublished changes.
That mark tells you your customers are still getting the old version. The only way to clear it is pressing Publish.
💡 If you undo the change — delete the text you wrote and restore the old wording, say — and the draft becomes identical to the live version, the mark clears by itself.
What happens to running sessions
This is the most misunderstood part: a session finishes in the version it started in.
Say a customer entered the flow on v2 and is waiting to reply at the second step. Meanwhile you published v3. When the customer writes, the flow continues with v2's graph, not v3's. Nobody ends up with a half-finished sequence of mismatched messages.
The consequences:
To see the new version in action, a new session has to start.
If you fixed a typo, people who are mid-flow right now keep getting the old text.
If you really want to cut them off, turn the automation off and on again: turning it off cancels running sessions.
The Logs screen shows which version each session ran in (Automation logs).
A concrete example
A café wants to fix a wrong price in its flow and get it live immediately:
On the Flow tab, open the price message and correct the text.
Wait for the indicator at the top right to return to Saved.
Check the issue button at the top left: it reads No issues.
Press Publish. The notice reads v4 published.
Customers who are mid-flow right now stay on v3. If they need the corrected price too, turn the switch in the top bar off and on again: running sessions are cancelled and the next time they write they start on v4.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
"I fixed it but the old message still goes out." The draft was never published. Look for the amber dot in the list and press Publish.
"I pressed Publish and nothing happened." The flow has errors and the Pre-publish check list opened. Fix the red rows.
Mistaking an automation that is off for a deleted one. It stays in the list; deleted ones are in the trash.
Assuming turning off leaves running sessions alone. Turning off cancels every running session; half-finished chats simply stop.
Expecting a new version to affect running sessions. It does not; a session finishes in the version it started in.
Panicking about the warning count. Warnings do not block publishing; reading them is enough.