Enabling playbook restart
Summarize
Summary of Enabling playbook restart
Playbook restart in ServiceNow’s Playbook Experience allows agents and fulfillers to restart a playbook either from the beginning or from a specific stage or activity during runtime. This feature enhances flexibility in managing workflows by enabling re-execution of relevant parts of a playbook without starting over entirely. Administrators enable and configure restart options using Workflow Studio.
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Key Features
- Automatic Enablement for New Playbooks: Restart is enabled by default on newly created playbooks.
- Manual Enablement for Existing Playbooks: Administrators must manually enable restart for existing playbooks; once enabled, it cannot be disabled.
- Restart Rules: Administrators set restart rules at the stage and activity level to control behavior during restarts:
- Skip on restart: Runs only during the initial execution, skipping during restarts to avoid duplicate tasks or records.
- Run always: Runs during both initial and restarted executions.
- Skip on first run: Runs only during restarted executions, not during the initial run.
- Restart States:
- Playbooks can be restarted only when in the active “In Progress” state.
- Stages and activities can be restarted if they are in a “Complete” or “Error” state.
- Playbooks in terminal states such as Complete, Error, or Cancelled cannot be restarted.
Design Considerations
- Last Stages and Activities: Avoid setting the last stage or activity to “Skip on first run” when no parallel stages exist, as it may never execute if the playbook restarts early.
- Stage Configuration: Do not group all activities configured as “Skip on first run” in a single stage, since this can cause the stage to be hidden on the initial run and only visible after a restart.
Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers
By enabling playbook restart, ServiceNow customers gain improved control over workflow execution, allowing users to efficiently re-run specific parts of a playbook without redundant task creation. Proper configuration of restart rules ensures that workflows behave predictably during restarts, supporting effective fulfillment and reducing operational errors. Administrators should carefully plan the restart behavior of stages and activities to align with business processes and avoid unintended skipping of critical tasks.
Learn how playbook restart during runtime works and how restart rules control the behavior of stages and activities during a restarted run.
Playbook restart lets agents and fulfillers in Playbook Experience restart a playbook from the beginning, or from a specific stage or activity. Playbooks administrators enable restart in Workflow Studio and define restart rules for each stage and activity.
Restart is automatically enabled for new playbooks. For existing playbooks, an administrator must enable restart manually. Once enabled, restart cannot be disabled.
Restart rules
When you configure restart for a stage or activity, you define what it does when a playbook is restarted. The following rules are available:
| Rule | Description |
|---|---|
| Skip on restart | The stage or activity runs only during the initial run. It does not run when the playbook is restarted. Use this rule when you don't want new tasks or records to be created during a restarted run, because the original execution and its resulting record are still relevant. |
| Run always | The stage or activity runs during both the initial run and any restarted run. |
| Skip on first run | The stage or activity runs only during a restarted run. It never runs during the initial run. |
Restart states
The state of a playbook, stage, or activity determines whether it can be restarted.
A playbook can only be restarted when it is in an active state. The only active state is In Progress. Playbooks in a terminal state — Complete, Error, or Cancelled — cannot be restarted.
The opposite is true for stages and activities. A stage or activity can only be restarted when it is in a complete or error state.
Design considerations
- Last stages and activities
- Avoid setting the last stage or activity of a playbook to Skip on first run if there are no parallel stages or activities. If the playbook is restarted before the last stage or activity can run, the last stage or activity never runs.
- Stages
- Avoid grouping all activities that are configured to Skip on first run in one (1) stage. If you do so, the stage is completely hidden the first time that it runs. The stage must run twice to become visible.