Viewing and debugging executions in the Step Functions console - Amazon Step Functions
Interface overview
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Viewing and debugging executions in the Step Functions console

The Execution Details page on the Step Functions console presents information about past and in-progress state machine executions for Standard and Express Workflows. This information is shown in a dashboard format. For example, you can find the state machine’s Amazon States Language definition, its execution status, ARN, and total number of state transitions. You can also view the execution details for any individual state in the state machine.

Execution Details page – Interface overview

You can find the details for all your in-progress and past state machine executions for both Standard and Express Workflows on the Execution Details page. If you specified an execution ID while starting your execution, this page is titled with that execution ID. Otherwise, it’s titled with the unique execution ID that Step Functions automatically generates for you.

Besides the execution metrics, the Execution Details page provides the following options for managing your state machine and its execution:

Button Choose this button to:
Edit state machine Edit your state machine's Amazon States Language definition.
New execution Start a new execution of your state machine.
Actions

Provides the following options to choose from:

  • Stop execution – Stop an in-progress execution. This option is unavilable for completed executions.

  • Redrive – Redrive executions of Standard Workflows that didn't complete successfully in the last 14 days. These include failed, aborted, or timed out executions. For more information, see Redriving state machine executions in Step Functions.

  • Export – Export the execution details in JSON format to share it with others or perform offline analysis.

  • Send feedback – Share feedback about the interface.
Viewing executions started with a version or alias

You can also view the executions started with a version or an alias in the Step Functions console. For more information, see Listing executions for versions and aliases.

The Execution Details console page contains the following sections:

The Step Functions Execution Details page interface displaying three sections: Execution summary, Workflow views, and Split panel. Execution summary section displays a high-level execution summary for a completed state machine execution. The Graph view tab is selected in the View mode section. In the Graph view, the GetActivityTask step is selected in the state machine workflow while the Step Details on the right displays the selected step's input and output details.

  1. Execution summary

  2. Error message

  3. View mode

  4. Step details

  5. Events

Execution summary

The Execution summary section appears at the top of the Execution Details page. This section provides you with an overview of the execution details of your workflow. This information is divided between the following three tabs:

Details

Shows information, such as the execution's status, ARN, and timestamps for execution start and end time. You can also view the total count of State transitions that occurred while running the state machine execution. You can also view the links for X-Ray trace map and Amazon CloudWatch Execution Logs if you enabled tracing or logs for your state machine.

If your state machine execution was started by another state machine, you can view the link for the parent state machine on this tab.

If your state machine execution was redriven, this tab displays redrive related information, for example Redrive count.

Execution input and output

Shows the state machine execution input and output side-by-side.

Definition

Shows the state machine's Amazon States Language definition.

Error message

If your state machine execution failed, the Execution Details page displays an error message. Choose Cause or View step details in the error message to view the reason for execution failure or the step that caused the error.

If you choose View step details, Step Functions highlights the step that caused the error in the Step details, Graph view, and Table view tabs. If the step is a Task, Map, or Parallel state for which you've defined retries, the Step details pane displays the Retry tab for the step. Additionally, if you've redriven the execution, you can see the retries and redrive execution details in the Retries & redrives tab of the Step details pane.

From the Recover dropdown button on this error message, you can either redrive your unsuccessful executions or start a new execution. For more information, see Redriving state machine executions in Step Functions.

Error message for a failed state machine execution on the Execution Details page. The error message also displays a link to the step that caused the execution failure.

View mode

The View mode section contains two different visualizations for your state machine. You can choose to view a graphic representation of the workflow, a table outlining the states in your workflow, or a list of the events associated with your state machine's execution:

Note

Choose a tab to view its contents.

Graph view

The Graph view mode displays a graphical representation of your workflow. A legend is included at the bottom that indicates the execution status of the state machine. It also contains buttons that let you zoom in, zoom out, center align the full workflow, or view the workflow in full-screen mode.

Graph view of the View mode section. A step named GetActivityTask is selected in the workflow.

From this view, you can choose any step in your workflow to view details about its execution in the Step details component. When you chose a step in the Graph view, the Table view also shows that step. This is true in reverse as well. If you choose a step from Table view, the Graph view shows the same step.

If your state machine contains a Map state, Parallel state, or both, you can view their names in the workflow in the Graph view. In addition, for the Map state, the Graph view lets you move across different iterations of the Map state execution data. For example, if your Map state has five iterations and you want to view the execution data for the third and fourth iterations, do the following:

  1. Choose the Map state whose iteration data you want to view.

  2. From Map iteration viewer, choose #2 from the dropdown list for third iteration. This is because iterations are counted from zero. Likewise, choose #3 from the dropdown list for the fourth iteration of the Map state.

    Alternatively, use the up arrow icon and down arrow icon controls to move between different iterations of the Map state.

    Note

    If your state machine contains nested Map states, the dropdown lists for the parent and child Map state iterations will be displayed as shown in the following example:

    Graph view mode section's Map iteration viewer, displaying a series of dropdown lists representing the iteration data for nested Map states.

  3. (Optional) If one or more of your Map state iterations failed to execute, or the execution was stopped, you can view its data by choosing those iteration numbers under Failed or Aborted in the dropdown list.

Finally, you can use the Export and Layout buttons to export the workflow graph as an SVG or PNG image. You can also switch between horizontal and vertical views of your workflow.

Table view

The Table view mode displays a tabular representation of the states in your workflow. In this View mode, you can see the details of each state that was executed in your workflow, including its name, the name of any resource it used (such as an Amazon Lambda function), and if the state executed successfully.

From this view, you can choose any state in your workflow to view details about its execution in the Step details component. When you chose a step in the Table view, the Graph view also shows that step. This is true in reverse as well. If you choose a step from Graph view, the Table view shows the same step.

You can also limit the amount of data displayed in the Table view mode by applying filters to the view. You can create a filter for a specific property, such as Status or Redrive attempt. For more information, see Tutorial: Examining state machine executions in Step Functions.

Table view of the View mode section. The Duration and Timeline are added to this Table view.

By default, this mode displays the Name, Type, Status, Resource, and Started After columns. You can configure the columns you want to view using the Preferences dialog box. The selections that you make on this dialog box persist for future state machine executions until they are changed again.

If you add the Timeline column, the execution duration of each state is shown with respect to the runtime for the entire execution. This is displayed as a color-coded, linear timeline. This can help you identify any performance-related issues with a specific state's execution. The color-coded segments for each state on the timeline help you identify the state's execution status, such as in-progress, failed, or aborted.

For example, if you've defined execution retries for a state in your state machine, these retries are shown in the timline. Red segments represent the failed Retry attempts, while light gray segments represent the BackoffRate between each Retry attempt.

Timeline column of the Table view section displaying the color-coded segments on the linear timeline to indicate different statuses of individual step executions.

If your state machine contains a Map state, Parallel state, or both, you can view their names in the workflow in Table view. For Map and Parallel states, the Table view mode displays the execution data for their iterations and parallel branches as nodes inside a tree view. You can choose each node in these states to view their individual details in the Step details section. For example, you can review the data for a specific Map state iteration that caused the state to fail. Expand the node for the Map state, and then view the status for each iteration in the Status column.

Step details

The Step details section opens up on the right when you choose a state in the Graph view or Table view. This section contains the following tabs, which provide you in-depth information about the selected state:

Input

Shows the input details of the selected state. If there is an error in the input, it is indicated with a error icon on the tab header. In addition, you can view the reason for the error in this tab.

You can also choose the Advanced view toggle button to see the input data transfer path as the data passed through the selected state. This lets you identify how your input was processed as one or more of the fields, such as InputPath, Parameters, ResultSelector, OutputPath, and ResultPath, were applied to the data.

Output

Shows the output of the selected state. If there is an error in the output, it is indicated with a error icon on the tab header. In addition, you can view the reason for the error in the this tab.

You can also choose the Advanced view toggle button to see the output data transfer path as the data passed through the selected state. This lets you identify how your input was processed as one or more of the fields, such as InputPath, Parameters, ResultSelector, OutputPath, and ResultPath, were applied to the data.

Details

Shows information, such as the state type, its execution status, and execution duration.

For Task states that use a resource, such as Amazon Lambda, this tab provides links to the resource definition page and Amazon CloudWatch logs page for the resource invocation. It also shows values, if specified, for the Task state's TimeoutSeconds and HeartbeatSeconds fields.

For Map states, this tab shows you information regarding the total count of a Map state's iterations. Iterations are categorized as Failed, Aborted, Succeeded, or InProgress.

Definition

Shows the Amazon States Language definition corresponding to the selected state.

Retry
Note

This tab appears only if you've defined a Retry field in your state machine's Task or Parallel state.

Shows the initial and subsequent retry attempts for a selected state in its original execution attempt. For the initial and all the subsequent failed attempts, choose the arrow icon next to Type to view the Reason for failure that appears in a dropdown box. If the retry attempt succeeds, you can view the Output that appears in a dropdown box.

If you've redriven your execution, this tab header displays the name Retries & redrives and displays the retry attempt details for each redrive.

Events

Shows a filtered list of the events associated with the selected state in an execution. The information you see on this tab is a subset of the complete execution event history you see in the Events table.

Events

The Events table displays the complete history for the selected execution as a list of events spanning multiple pages. Each page contains up to 25 events. This section also displays the total event count, which can help you determine if you exceeded the maximum event history count of 25,000 events.

Events of the View mode section. Page number 3 is selected to display the execution event history on that page.

By default, the results in the Events table are displayed in ascending order based on the Timestamp of the events. You can change the execution event history's sorting to descending order by clicking on the Timestamp column header.

In the Events table, each event is color-coded to indicate its execution status. For example, events that failed appear in red. To view additional details about an event, choose the arrow icon next to the event ID. Once open, the event details show the input, output, and resource invocation for the event.

In addition, in the Events table, you can apply filters to limit the execution event history results that are displayed. You can choose properties such as ID, or Redrive attempt. For more information, see Tutorial: Examining state machine executions in Step Functions.