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How often should this workflow run?

Many workflow triggers fire repeatedly for the same incident — for example, “an incident is updated” fires every time any field changes. Without deduplication, this could flood channels with duplicate messages or re-run actions that should only happen once. By default, workflows are configured to run once for a given resource, like an incident or a message. This is controlled by the “How often should this workflow run?” setting, which you’ll find in the Advanced section of the workflow editor.

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How it works

When a workflow fires, incident.io checks whether it has already run for the same combination of values. If it has, the workflow is silently skipped. For example, if a workflow is set to run once per Incident, it will fire the first time its trigger and conditions match for a given incident, but won’t fire again for the same incident — even if the trigger fires multiple times. If you clear the run once setting entirely, the workflow will run every time the trigger fires and conditions match, with no deduplication.

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Configuring run frequency

  1. Open the workflow you want to edit.
  2. Click Advanced to open the advanced settings drawer.
  3. Under How often should this workflow run?, you’ll see the current configuration.
  4. Click the edit icon to change which resources the workflow should deduplicate on.
  5. Use the dropdown to add or remove resources, then click Confirm.
The available resources depend on the trigger you’ve selected. Common options include:
ResourceMeaning
IncidentRun once per incident
UserRun once per user (combined with other selections)
MessageRun once per Slack message
SeverityRun once per severity value (combined with other selections)
ActionRun once per action item
Follow-upRun once per follow-up
You can select multiple resources. When you do, the workflow runs once for each unique combination of those values.

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Interaction with loops

If your workflow includes a loop, the run once setting applies to non-looped steps as normal. However, looped steps can still “catch up” with new values even after the non-looped steps have been skipped. See How often will workflow loops run? for a detailed example.
Each trigger has a sensible default. For example, “An incident is updated” defaults to once per incident, while “A user joins the incident channel” defaults to once per incident and user. You can see the current setting in the Advanced section and change it at any time.
Yes. Edit the run once setting and remove all resources. The workflow will then run every time its trigger fires and conditions match.
Run once is scoped to the workflow itself, not to a specific version. If you edit and save a workflow, the deduplication still considers previous runs of the same workflow.