How to Cancel a Running Flow Instance

Admins can cancel a flow instance at any time. Cancellation is permanent — a cancelled instance cannot be resumed or restarted from where it stopped.

Who can cancel

Only admins can cancel flow instances. Regular users cannot cancel flows, even ones they triggered themselves.

How to cancel

1. Go to Admin → Instances in the left sidebar
2. Find the instance to cancel — use filters (flow name, status, triggered-by user, date range) or the search box if needed
3. Click the instance row to open the detail panel
4. Click the Cancel button at the top of the detail panel
5. Confirm the cancellation in the dialog

The instance status immediately changes to Cancelled.

What happens after cancellation

• The instance is permanently closed — no new steps will be created or assigned
• Steps that were Pending at the time of cancellation remain in the history but require no action
• Assigned users for those pending steps are not automatically notified of the cancellation — notify them manually if appropriate
• All previously submitted form data and uploaded files remain accessible in the instance history

When to cancel a flow

Common reasons:

• The flow was triggered by mistake or was a test run
• The underlying request has been withdrawn or superseded by another instance
• The instance is in Error status and cannot be recovered — cancel it and ask the requester to re-trigger a new instance
• Duplicate instances exist for the same request

Cancellation vs letting the flow finish

If you simply want the workflow to conclude, the better option is usually to let the current step assignee complete or reject it normally. Cancellation is a hard stop.

If a step is stuck because the assignee is unavailable, consider reassigning the step instead of cancelling the entire flow.

See also

• How to Reassign a Pending Step to Another User
• Understanding Flow Instance Statuses
• What to Do If a Workflow Step Is Stuck or Errors