Flow Designer Issue - Catalog Variable Retrieval Failure

[dbowens]

I'm experiencing a Flow Designer issue where catalog variables are not being retrieved or populated correctly. The flow execution halts at the "Get Catalog Variables" step and fails to complete the full workflow. Consequently, variables that should auto-populate and fields requiring automatic assignment upon form submission remain unset.

Trouble shooting attempts include:

-Flow debugging and execution log analysis

-Deactivating and reactivating the flow

-Verifying flow configuration and trigger conditions

-Testing with different user contexts.

The flow was previously functioning correctly and the only updates to the catalog item were simple wording changes and filtering. What potential root causes could explain this regression and are there any recommended workarounds or alternative approaches to resolve this issue?

[TejasSN_LogicX]

This issue usually occurs when the Flow Designer step “Get Catalog Variables” cannot resolve the variable set anymore. Since your flow was working earlier and only minor catalog item changes were made, a few root causes are most likely:

1. Variable Set Link Broken – If the catalog item’s variable set was unlinked or its internal name changed, the flow step won’t find the variables.

2. Scope Mismatch – Flows in a different scope sometimes lose access to variables if the catalog item or variables were modified (renamed or moved).

3. Dictionary/Value Changes – Renaming, changing backend names, or filtering out variables can break the mapping logic.

4. Execution Context – If the flow runs under a user context that doesn’t have rights to read the variables, the step silently fails.

5. Caching/Corruption – Occasionally, the flow step cache gets stuck after catalog updates.

Workarounds / Fixes:

• Re-open the catalog item and re-attach the variable set; check backend names of variables haven’t changed.

• Re-add the “Get Catalog Variables” action into the flow — sometimes re-inserting refreshes the binding.

• Verify the variable names used in later flow steps exactly match the system names, not just labels.

• Test with “Run as System User” enabled in the flow trigger to bypass permission issues.

• If issue persists, use a Script step to fetch variables directly from sc_item_option_mtom and sc_item_option tables — this is a reliable fallback.

[Brad Bowman]

If deleting and re-creating the Get Catalog Variables action is too impactful - as you will have to re-add any data pills used in later actions, first try clearing the trigger RITM from the Submitted Request field, then re-adding it, selecting a Catalog Item, and the variables.  Also make sure your Flow Designer plug-in is up to date, and you are testing with a newly-submitted RITM.

[dbowens]

I've tried this approach and still having the same issues with the variable inputs not mapping to the RITM or REQ records. 

[kaushal_snow]

Hi @dbowens ,

It’s possible what you’re seeing is that Get Catalog Variables is failing because the flow is using it too early (before the variables are committed), or there’s a bug/regression in your version that causes outdated / undefined values to come back (this is a known issue especially in versions after Washington) also note Flow Designer’s scoping rules, variables must be exposed as flow variables if you want to use them beyond immediate branches (if you fetch inside an IF you may lose access later)......so as a workaround, delay the Get Catalog Variables step until just before use, push the outputs into flow variables, and check for known KBs or patches for your release to address this....

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