Work queues actions

Work Queues in Power Automate can be used to store process-relevant data and provide a way to decouple complex processes and automations, allowing them to communicate asynchronously.

Work queues can play a crucial role in improving the efficiency, scalability, and resiliency of automations and help prioritize work. Work queues allow you to complete highest-priority items first, regardless of whether they're processed by digital workers, human workers, or through integrations.

Note

• Production-level support for the first set of work queue-related actions requires Power Automate desktop version 2.37 or later.
• Work queue actions in Power Automate for desktop is a premium feature, which requires a Power Automate subscription.
• Currently only Process work queue items and Update work queue item actions can be classified and allowed or restricted through data loss prevention (DLP) policies, with other actions following soon. Note that cloud flow-based usage of work queues can't be restricted by DLP policies.

Process work queue items

The Process work queue items action indicates to the queue orchestrator that the machine is ready to process one or more work queue items. The user context requesting a new item needs to have sufficient privileges on the work queue and work queue items table in order to process work queues.

The work queue referenced in the above action is used by the queue orchestrator to determine the next available items in that work queue that are in Queued state. As the desktop flow steps through the actions within the Process work queue items loop that this action renders, you can call on the value by utilizing the variable you have designated for the action along with the property .Value. In this case, you could call the value of the work queue item using the variable %WorkQueueItem.Value%

processworkqueueitemaction

The Process work queue item action action requires the following arguments.

Input Parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Work queue	No	Text		The work queue ID of the work queue that contains items to process

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
WorkQueueItem	No	Information stored in the work queue item being processed

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Work queue not found	The value entered into the work queue parameter is invalid
Failed to process work queue	Bad request - error in query syntax

Update work queue item

The Update work queue item action allows users to change the status and processing results of the selected work queue item.

updateworkqueueitemaction

The Update work queue item action action requires the following arguments.

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Work queue item	No	Text		Work queue item variable that has been previously returned by the queue orchestrator
Status	No	Processed, Generic Exception	Processed	Update the work queue item being processed using a status from the list of options.
Processing result	Yes	Text		Custom processing result or value to set append to the queue item being processed

Exceptions

Argument	Description
Work queue item not found	The work queue item being processed has either been deleted or no longer belongs to the queue that it was called from.
Work queue item on hold	The work queue item being processed contains a status of on hold in the queue orchestrator and can no longer be updated.
Failed to update work queue item	The work queue item being updated has encountered an unexpected error, check the error message for more details.

Add work queue item

The Add work queue item action allows users to populate work queue items into a work queue, which has been set up in the flow portal.

addworkqueueitem action

The Add work queue item action requires the following arguments.

Input Parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Work queue	No	Text value		The work queue item to add the item into
Priority	No	High, Normal, Low	Normal	The priority to set the work queue item to
Name	No	Text value, Numeric value		Custom name or ID for the new work queue item
Input	No	Text value, Numeric value		The data which belongs to the value column to be processed
Expires	Yes	Datetime		The datetime value set to expire the queue item, otherwise adopts the default value if one is set for the queue
Processing notes	Yes	Text value, Numeric value		Custom processing notes to be added to the new queue item

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
WorkQueueItem	No	Information stored for the work queue item being added

Exceptions

Argument	Description
Work queue not found	The value entered into the work queue parameter is invalid
Failed to add item into work queue	The work queue item couldn't be added into the work queue. Bad request - error in query syntax

Requeue item with delay

The Requeue item with delay action allows users to to re-add a queue item being processed in the desktop flow, back into it's originating queue. In addition, the queued item can be held and released until a defined time.

requeueworkqueueitemaction

The Requeue item with delay action requires the following arguments.

Input Parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Work queue item	No	Work queue item		The work queue item to add the item into
Delay until	No	Datetime value	Normal	The datetime value applied to delay the queue item until
Expires	Yes	Datetime value		Custom expiration time for the item being requeued
Processing result	Yes	Text value, Numeric value		Custom processing result to be added to the new queue item

Exceptions

Argument	Description
Work queue not found	The value entered into the work queue parameter is invalid
Work queue item not found	The queue item value is invalid
Failed to requeue work queue item	The work queue item couldn't be added into the work queue. Bad request - error in query syntax

See also

• Work queue overview
• Manage work queues
• Bulk-import work queue data
• Trigger work queues
• Process work queues