Publish, pause and restore versions

Every agent is either a draft or published. A draft is saved but dormant: you can connect accounts to it and test it, but nothing starts it apart from you. A published agent is live, which means its trigger starts it by itself. The Agents list shows the difference as a Draft or Live badge on each row.

app.centrus.ai/app/agents/workflow-builder

Agents

Build modular AI workflows with reusable nodes

Chase overdue invoices

1,240 / 10,000 creditsValidateResetRuns

Settings2

Update & Publish1

Weekday mornings

Daily at 09:15 · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Fetch unpaid invoices

List invoices

Overdue by 1 to 14 days

Keep ALL of 3 rule(s)

Each overdue invoice

For each of incoming items

Draft chase email

GPT-5.6 Terra

Check before sending

Approve in panel (wait up to 1440 min)

Send chase email

1 action enabled

AI builderMap

Ready to publish

Workflow published as agent #418. Connect integration accounts for: BigChange REST, Outlook. Estimated 7-19 automation credits per run.3

1. 1The publish button. It reads Save and Publish on a draft and Update & Publish once the agent is live.
2. 2Settings, where the Status field and the version history live.
3. 3The message Centrus shows when the agent goes live.

You can tell a live agent in the builder without opening anything: the save button has gone from the toolbar and the publish button reads Update & Publish. In Settings, Status reads Published with the line Live and running on its trigger. Switch to Draft to pause it while you make changes. On a draft it reads Draft, with Not running yet. Switch to Published to save, connect integrations and go live.

What live means depends on the trigger. The agent's steps are the same either way; what changes is whether anything outside the builder can start them.

Schedule Trigger

DraftNo scheduled runs. Times that pass are skipped, not saved up.

LiveRuns at its times, counted from when you last published.

Email received

DraftCentrus does not watch the mailbox.

LiveEach new email in the folder that passes the filters starts a run.

System alerts

DraftEvents from BigChange, Simpro, Joblogic, Fixflo, Freshdesk or Ostara are skipped, not queued.

LiveEach event you have ticked starts a run.

Chat Trigger

DraftCannot be called from chat or WhatsApp.

LivePeople with Use or Edit access can call it from chat and WhatsApp.

Incoming voice call

DraftYour Centrus number is not connected to it.

LiveThe Voice AI answers calls to your number. One live line per organisation.

Run now

Works on a draft and on a live agent, whatever the trigger. It runs the canvas as last saved, so you can test before you publish.

Nothing that happens while an agent is a draft is saved up for later. Missed schedule times, emails and alerts are not replayed when you publish. Each trigger has its own guide, linked from Choose how an agent starts.

1. 1Check the agent with Validate and fix anything shown as an error. Test it with Run now in Runs, or with a Spike Test, as described in Test an agent before it goes live.
2. 2Click Save and Publish at the right of the toolbar.
3. 3If Centrus finds warnings, read them and choose Publish anyway or Review warnings.
4. 4Wait for the green message. The button changes to Update & Publish and the agent is live.

You do not need to save first. Save and Publish works through these stages in order, and stops at the first one that fails:

• It checks the agent. If the last check found errors, publishing stops with Fix validation errors before publishing. and the Validation window opens. Nothing is saved.
• It asks about warnings. Warnings include accounts that are not connected yet. Publish with warnings? lets you carry on or go back. Review warnings opens the Validation window, and nothing is saved.
• It saves the canvas, exactly as Save changes would.
• Centrus checks again, along with your plan, your organisation's limits and the needs of the trigger. The next section lists what it looks at.
• It goes live and shows the green message.

The green message says Workflow published as agent followed by a reference number, which you can ignore. The next sentence, starting Connect integration accounts for, lists every system the agent's steps use, even ones that are already connected, so treat it as a reminder to check. It ends with an estimate of the automation credits a single run should use. What credits pay for is explained in Automation credits and usage limits.

An account that is not connected is only a warning, so the agent can go live without it. Its steps cannot reach that system until you connect the account, so connect everything before you publish.

You can also publish from Settings. Change Status to Published: the window closes and the same publish begins. Agents can also be published from chat or WhatsApp, after you confirm the change. See Build and edit agents from chat and WhatsApp.

Validation errors always block publishing. The ones most often met at this point are trigger settings that are missing, such as an alert trigger with nothing ticked, a Chat Trigger without a tool name, or an Email received step with no mailbox chosen. Centrus also refuses to publish an agent whose trigger has no person behind it while Integration mode in Settings is set to Per-user.

New Fixflo issue

No event types selected

Fetch the issue

Get issue

Create the job

Create job

2 errors

Validation

Fixflo webhook needs at least one event type selected before it can be published.

Click to focus this node on the canvas

Fixflo webhook cannot use per-user credentials. Use the agent Fixflo connection.

Click to focus this node on the canvas

!Fix validation errors before publishing.

• Event types. Every alert trigger needs at least one event ticked, for example Simpro webhook needs at least one event type selected before it can be published. See Start an agent from a system alert.
• Per-user credentials. Email received, alert triggers and phone lines always use the agent's own connection. The messages read, for example, Email received cannot use per-user credentials. Use the agent Outlook or Gmail connection. and A phone line uses the agent connection. There is no chat user on an inbound call. Per-user can only be chosen on an agent started from chat, so this usually means the trigger was changed afterwards. Switch Integration mode back to Agent-level; only the agent's creator or an admin can change it.
• Other required settings, such as Chat Trigger needs a tool name before it can be published. and Email received needs Outlook or Gmail selected before it can be published.

Once the canvas has passed, Centrus looks at things outside it. These refusals appear as a red message at the top of the screen:

• The live-agent limit and your plan are only checked when a draft goes live. Updating an agent that is already live never counts against the limit. To make room, switch another agent to draft or archive it; the message says pause, which means the same thing.
• Send SMS needs your organisation's Centrus number, even if the step sits on a path that rarely runs. See Send text messages.
• Chat Trigger tool names must be unique among the live agents in your organisation. See Run an agent from chat and WhatsApp.
• Incoming voice call needs a claimed number, and only one agent can answer it at a time. See Make outbound calls and answer incoming calls.

By the time Centrus refuses for one of these reasons, the canvas has already been saved, so you lose nothing. Fix the cause and publish again.

Publishing works from the last check, not a fresh one. If the pill at the bottom of the canvas reads Validation outdated, click Validate before you publish. Otherwise an error you have already fixed can still stop you with Fix validation errors before publishing., and a new one only surfaces when Centrus checks again, as Workflow is not valid and cannot be published with the Validation window open.

On a live agent, the save button disappears and Update & Publish takes its place, so saving and publishing happen together. Edit the canvas as usual, then click Update & Publish. It runs through the same stages as the first publish.

Chase overdue invoices

1,240 / 10,000 creditsValidate

Discard changes1

RunsSettings

Update & Publish2

Weekday mornings

Daily at 09:15 · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Fetch unpaid invoices

List invoices

Overdue by 1 to 14 days

Keep ALL of 3 rule(s)

Each overdue invoice

For each of incoming items

Draft chase email

GPT-5.6 Terra

Check before sending

Approve in panel (wait up to 1440 min)

Send chase email

1 action enabled

Validation outdated: revalidate

1. 1Discard changes throws away everything since the last save, after asking you to confirm.
2. 2Update & Publish saves your changes and puts them live.

Here is what happens when the update goes through:

• New runs use the new version straight away. Whatever starts the agent next, whether a schedule, an email, an alert, a chat request or a call, gets the steps you have just published.
• Runs already under way finish on the version they started with. Each run keeps its own copy of the steps, so a run that is waiting for an approval carries on with the old steps when someone approves it.
• A schedule is worked out again from that moment. On a Simple schedule the interval starts again, so with Daily the next run comes about 24 hours after you publish. See Run an agent on a schedule.
• Email received picks up a new folder or filters when you publish. If you replace Email received with a different trigger, switch the agent to draft first, or the old mailbox keeps starting runs. See Start an agent when an email arrives.
• Your live-agent count does not change, and nothing is charged for publishing itself.
• Two versions are added to the version history: a Draft saved version from the save and a Published version a moment later, both holding the same canvas.

Changing an agent's name or description in Settings and clicking Save under Description updates the name on the Agents list straight away, without publishing. Sharing changes in Manage access also take effect at once. See Share an agent.

A live agent can briefly exist in three forms: the canvas on your screen, the version saved in Centrus, and the version that is live. With the toolbar alone, saved and live move together, because Update & Publish is the only save button. A few other actions save without publishing, and then the saved canvas is ahead of the live one until you publish.

• Save under Description in Settings saves the whole canvas as it stands, not just the name and description, and the builder then treats your changes as saved.
• The AI builder saves when you ask it to, and so does editing an agent from chat or WhatsApp when you choose to save rather than publish.
• Run now runs the saved canvas, not the live version, which makes it a safe way to try a saved change before you publish it.
• On an alert trigger, the events you have ticked are read from the saved canvas. A change to the ticks can start or stop runs as soon as it is saved, while the steps those runs follow stay as last published. Publish straight after you change the ticks.

On a live agent you cannot save half-finished work from the toolbar. Update & Publish refuses while there are errors and saves nothing, and leaving the builder throws your changes away without asking. For a larger change, open Settings and use Duplicate this agent to work on a draft copy, or switch the agent to draft while you work on it, accepting that it stops running in the meantime.

Discard changes puts the canvas back to the last saved version after you confirm, and Centrus replies Canvas returned to the last saved version. It cannot take you back further than the last save. For that, use the version history.

Centrus keeps a snapshot of the canvas every time the agent is saved with changes and every time it is published. To see them, click Settings in the toolbar and open the Version history tab. The newest version is at the top, and the list shows the 100 most recent.

• First save is the version made when the agent was first saved.
• Draft saved is any later save. Saves that change nothing on the canvas do not add a version.
• Published is a version that was published. Publishing always adds one, even with no changes.
• Had errors means validation found errors in that version.

Each row also shows when the version was made, who made it and how many steps it has. Versions cannot be deleted one by one, and there is no side-by-side comparison: to see what an older version contained, restore it, look, and then use Discard changes.

1. 1Click Name this version under the version, or Rename if it already has a name.
2. 2Type a name of up to 80 characters, such as Before the approval step.
3. 3Press Enter or click Save. Esc or Cancel leaves the name as it was, and saving an empty name removes it.

Restoring puts an older canvas back in front of you as unsaved changes. It does not touch the saved or live agent until you choose to, so it is safe to look.

1. 1Open Settings, then Version history.
2. 2Find the version and click Restore. If you have unsaved changes, confirm with Load version.
3. 3Check the canvas. An amber strip under the toolbar reads Viewing version 9. Not saved.
4. 4On a live agent, click Update & Publish to put that version live. On a draft, click Save changes.

Chase overdue invoices

1,240 / 10,000 creditsValidate

Discard changes2

RunsSettings

Update & Publish3

Viewing version 9. Not saved.

1

Weekday mornings

Daily at 09:15 · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Fetch unpaid invoices

List invoices

Overdue by 1 to 14 days

Keep ALL of 3 rule(s)

Each overdue invoice

For each of incoming items

Draft chase email

GPT-5.6 Terra

Send chase email

1 action enabled

Validation outdated: revalidate

Version 9 loaded on canvas. Press Update & Publish to accept changes.

1. 1The amber strip shows which version is on the canvas. It goes once you save or publish.
2. 2Discard changes abandons the restore and goes back to the last saved version.
3. 3Update & Publish makes the restored version live.

That is how you roll back a live agent: restore the version that worked, then publish it. Centrus records the result as new versions at the top of the list, so the versions you rolled back from stay in the history too.

• Restoring brings back the steps, their settings and the links between them. Connected accounts, the agent's name and description, access, integration mode and credit budget stay as they are now.
• With unsaved changes on the canvas, Centrus first asks Load this version onto the canvas? Loading replaces those changes, and Discard changes afterwards returns to the last save, not to them.
• If a restored step uses a system the agent has no connected account for, connect it before you publish. Validate shows what is missing.

The AI builder can read the version history too. Ask it about an earlier version by number or by name, such as "what changed in version 10?" or "put it back to version 9". It describes the version and asks you to confirm before it changes anything.

After Apply to canvas, the amber Viewing version strip appears and the restored version is unsaved, exactly as if you had used Restore. The AI builder never publishes. Ask it to save, or click Update & Publish yourself. It can also name a version for you. How the AI builder works in general is covered in Build your first agent from a message.

To stop a live agent without losing anything, switch it back to draft. There is no separate pause button; a draft is a paused agent.

1. 1Click Settings in the toolbar.
2. 2On the Agent tab, change Status from Published to Draft.
3. 3Confirm with Revert to draft.

As soon as you confirm, the schedule stops, Centrus stops watching the mailbox, alerts are skipped, the agent can no longer be called from chat, and your Centrus number stops answering with it. The badge on the Agents list changes to Draft, and the agent no longer counts towards your live-agent limit.

• Kept: the canvas, connected accounts, sharing, settings, run history and every version. Publish again whenever you are ready.
• Still works: Run now in Runs, so you can test while it is paused.
• Not stopped: runs that had already started, including any waiting for an approval. Stop them from Runs with Stop run if they should not finish.

If your organisation moves to the free plan, Centrus switches every live agent back to draft automatically. They stay as drafts when Agent Builder returns, so publish the ones you want again.

Archive on the Agents list stops an agent in the same way as reverting to draft, then hides it from the list. Restore brings it back as a draft, which stays off until you publish it again. Both are described in Open Agent Builder. Deleting is the one step that cannot be undone, and it lives at the foot of the Agent tab in Settings.

Deleting removes the agent, its connected accounts, its run history and its whole version history, and takes you back to the Agents list with Agent deleted (or Draft deleted). If you might want the agent again, archive it instead. Archiving, restoring and deleting all need Edit access.

Publishing, updating, reverting to draft and restoring a version all need Edit access to the agent. The person who created it always has Edit access. Being an admin does not give Edit access by itself: an admin can change who has access, but needs Edit access to publish.

• With Use or View access, the builder opens read-only, with View only in the toolbar and no publish button. In Version history, Restore becomes View on canvas, which shows an older version without saving anything.
• Agent Builder comes with the Small Team and Large Team plans, and both allow up to 100 live agents as standard. Monthly credits and the other limits are in Automation credits and usage limits.
• Access levels and how to give them are covered in Share an agent.

Publishing, pausing and restoring all work on a phone. The toolbar keeps Save and Publish or Update & Publish in full, while Runs and Settings shrink to icons. Settings opens across the screen, with Status under the name and description, and Version history in the second tab.

09:41

Centrus

Agents

Build modular AI workflows with reusable nodes

Chase overdue invoices

Update & Publish

Weekday mornings

Daily at 09:15 · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Fetch unpaid invoices

List invoices

Overdue by 1 to 14 days

Keep ALL of 3 rule(s)

Each overdue invoice

For each of incoming items

Draft chase email

GPT-5.6 Terra

Check before sending

Approve in panel (wait up to 1440 min)

Send chase email

1 action enabled

Ready to publish

Agent settings

AgentVersion history

Agent nameChase overdue invoices

DescriptionChases invoices 1 to 14 days overdue each weekday morning.

Leave blank if you do not want a description on the Agents list.

Save

StatusPublished

Live and running on its trigger. Switch to Draft to pause it while you make changes.

Status lives here

On a narrow screen the canvas is hard to check properly, so make changes on a computer and keep the phone for publishing, pausing and restoring when you are away from your desk. See Find your way round the canvas.