Skip to main content
A dry run runs your workflow end to end without triggering real side effects. Any step that would write somewhere outside Ingestly produces a preview instead of sending, while every other step executes normally. Use a dry run to inspect the exact payload an output node would produce before you send it for real. The run mode is chosen per run, not stored on the workflow. Each run is either a Dry run or a Live run.

​
Choosing the run mode

You pick the run mode from the Run control in the workflow editor toolbar. The dropdown next to the run button offers:
  • Dry run: steps that would write outside Ingestly preview instead of sending.
  • Live run: output nodes send real requests and emails.
The default follows the workflow’s environment: a Development workflow defaults to a Dry run, and a Production workflow defaults to a Live run. You can override the mode for your current session; the choice is never written back to the workflow, so it resets when you reload.
When you choose Live run and start the run, a confirmation dialog titled “Run with live outputs” asks “Output nodes will send real requests and emails. Continue?” This safeguard prevents accidental production deliveries. A dry run starts immediately with no confirmation.

​
What a dry run does

  • All trigger, action, and processing nodes run normally. Extraction, parsing, transformation, validation, routing, merging, and review steps execute exactly as they would live.
  • Callback nodes resolve the URL, method, headers, and body but do not send the HTTP request. They return a preview of what would have been sent.
  • Email output nodes render the email but do not send it. They return a preview showing the recipients, subject, rendered body, and attachment names.
  • Business Central and QuickBooks nodes in their Insert or Update operation resolve the request but do not write to the connector. They return the same request preview a callback does.
  • HTTP action nodes depend on the method. A GET is a read, so it is sent and the step returns the real response, which is what lets every node downstream of it be tested in a dry run. POST, PUT, PATCH and DELETE return a preview instead, exactly like a callback.
  • A Business Central or QuickBooks node in its Look up operation is a read, so it runs for real: the query goes to your live tenant and the step returns the real record, the same way a GET does.
A dry-run GET, and a dry-run lookup, reach the real system. They cannot change anything there, but they do count against its rate limits and appear in its logs.

​
Dry run preview

When a dry run completes, output steps show a preview instead of raw output. The preview includes a blue “Dry run preview, not sent” banner and a structured breakdown of what would have been sent.

​
Callback preview

  • HTTP method and resolved URL
  • Request headers (if configured)
  • Request body (formatted as JSON or HTML)
The rendered request body appears in a read-only JSON editor, pretty-printed for easy inspection. Because no delivery is recorded for a dry-run step, this prepared-request preview also appears in the run-detail Callback Delivery History panel in place of an actual delivery record.

​
Email preview

  • Recipients (displayed as badges)
  • Subject line
  • Rendered email body (with HTML preview)
  • Attachment file names (if configured)
You can switch between a Preview tab (structured view) and a Raw tab (full JSON output) to inspect the dry-run payload.

​
Credit usage

Dry runs consume credits for AI-powered nodes (extract, parse, AI validation, AI-based routing) because those steps execute fully. Output nodes (callback, email) do not consume credits regardless of run mode. Testing is billed exactly like a production run, including when it goes wrong: a dry run that fails or is cancelled part way through is charged for the steps that ran before it stopped, and testing a single node in isolation charges that node. See how a run is billed.

​
Spotting dry runs later

Runs started as a dry run carry a Dry run badge on the runs list and the run detail header, so you can tell a preview run apart from a live one at a glance.

Build your first workflow

Step-by-step guide to building and testing a workflow

Callback node

Configure webhook delivery for workflow results

Email output node

Configure email delivery for workflow results

Monitoring runs

Find the Dry run badge and inspect step previews