See action history in running workflow inside of a loop

Question

See action history in running workflow inside of a loop

Le Thinh - Munich-MR 20

Hello everyone,

we are using Azure Logic Apps to build our business process. To implement a retry mechanism for Azure Batch Account call we use a loop as you can see in the screenshot below. But it seems that if we use a loop to build that retry behavior we can't look into the run history of the actions inside of that loop. Is this a limitation of Logic App workflows or is there a way to see the actions which have been run? In the following case we know that the workflow is at the web hook "Wait for administrator" but we can't see the Input and Output of the previous action inside the loop. If there is no way is there another possibility to implement a retry mechanism where the workflows wait for user input / event before retry?

User's image

Jerald Felix 9,835 Reputation points

2025-11-14T14:11:12.56+00:00
Hello Le Thinh - Munich-MR,

Greetings!

The inability to view detailed action history (inputs/outputs) for actions inside a running loop (e.g., Until or For-each) in Azure Logic Apps is a known design limitation—loop iterations are treated as a single nested execution in the run history, hiding individual iteration details during active runs to simplify the UI and reduce logging overhead. Completed runs show aggregated results but not per-iteration breakdowns; this applies to both Consumption and Standard Logic Apps. For debugging your Azure Batch retry loop with webhook waits, use these workarounds:

Quick Troubleshooting Steps

Enable Diagnostic Logging:

In portal > Your Logic App > Diagnostic settings > Add diagnostic setting > Select "WorkflowRuntime" and "AllLogs" > Send to Log Analytics workspace.

Query in Logs (after run):
WorkflowRuntimeEvents | where WorkflowName == "YourWorkflowName" | where EventName contains "LoopIteration" | order by TimeGenerated desc | project TimeGenerated, EventName, Category, Properties // Shows iteration details

This captures webhook calls, errors, and batch responses per iteration (real-time visibility).

Review Run Inputs/Outputs (Limited):

Run history > Select running instance > Expand loop action > View "Inputs" for full array/context, "Outputs" for aggregate (e.g., successful retries count).

For webhook waits: Check "Until" condition outputs to see iteration state (e.g., admin response received).

Alternative for Better Visibility:

Rethink Loop Structure: Replace loop with sequential "If" conditions or "Scope" actions (e.g., Scope1 for attempt 1, Scope2 for attempt 2)—each has full history. Use variables to track retry count.

Example: Variable "RetryCount" (init 0) > Condition: If RetryCount < 3 > Batch call > Increment variable > Webhook wait > If admin approved, exit; else continue.

Child Flows: Break retry into sub-flows (triggered per iteration)—each child has separate run history. Parent calls child via HTTP until success.

Azure Monitor Alerts: Set alerts on loop failures (Monitoring > Alerts > Signal: "Workflow Failed" > Scope to loop action).

Test and Monitor:

Run in debug mode (designer > Run) to step through iterations.

If webhook timing issues, add "Delay" (5s) post-call for async processing.

Standard Logic Apps: Enable detailed tracking in workflow.json ("parameters": {"$connections": {"settings": {"supportsRetry": true}}}).

This gives per-iteration insights without UI changes—start with diagnostics for your Batch retry. If helpful, accept the answer.

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix
Pravallika KV 2,845 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-17T06:05:53.9033333+00:00

Hi @Le Thinh - Munich-MR, following up to see if you had a chance to check the previous response and if it was helpful. Please do let us know if you're still facing the issue and need any further assistance on this.
Lauri Kotilainen 0 Reputation points

2025-12-04T14:21:18.6733333+00:00

Question: is this a limitation of the workflow engine or just the user interface?

I've written a tool that is able to parse a workflow definition from the run history, walk the action tree and query the API for action details. I can get the basic action details from within a loop iteration, too, but the InputLink and OutputLink URLs all result in a 404 response.

Answer accepted by question author

0 additional answers

Your answer

Pravallika KV 2,845 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-17T06:05:53.9033333+00:00

Hi @Le Thinh - Munich-MR, following up to see if you had a chance to check the previous response and if it was helpful. Please do let us know if you're still facing the issue and need any further assistance on this.
Lauri Kotilainen 0 Reputation points

2025-12-04T14:21:18.6733333+00:00

Question: is this a limitation of the workflow engine or just the user interface?

I've written a tool that is able to parse a workflow definition from the run history, walk the action tree and query the API for action details. I can get the basic action details from within a loop iteration, too, but the InputLink and OutputLink URLs all result in a 404 response.

Answer 1

Hi @Le Thinh - Munich-MR , Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

Please find below possible solutions.

Capture the final result to a variable (recommended when only final output needed)
- Inside the Until loop, when you detect the task is completed, set a variable finalExitCode and (optionally) finalOutput from the Get Azure Batch job task action, then Terminate/exit the loop.
- Example set-variable expression: setVariable('finalExitCode', outputs('Get_Azure_Batch_job_task')?['body/executionInfo/exitCode'])
- Outside the loop use variables('finalExitCode') in your IF.
Move the “Get task output” action outside the loop (clean separation)
- Let the loop only poll for status. Once the loop finishes (status == completed), call Get Azure Batch job task output once, then use its outputs in the IF.
- This ensures the output action is in the parent scope and its outputs are directly visible to downstream actions.
Collect every iteration’s outputs if you need full history
- Initialize an array variable iterationResults = []. Inside the loop append a small object each iteration: e.g., appendToArray('iterationResults', { iteration: variables('i'), state: body(...).state, exitCode: body(...).executionInfo.exitCode, timestamp: utcNow() }).
- After the loop you’ll have every iteration’s payloads in variables('iterationResults') to inspect, store, or branch on.

Please do let me know if any further question on this or do let me know if it works.

Share via

See action history in running workflow inside of a loop

Quick Troubleshooting Steps

0 additional answers

Your answer