---
url: https://pencel.ai/docs/guides/monitoring-runs.md
description: >-
  Check what your scheduled work did, find out why something failed or didn't
  run, and try it again, using Studio's Jobs page.
---

# Check on scheduled work

Use this when you want the full history of what ran for you, or need to find out why something failed or didn't run.

Most of the time you won't need this page. Work that needs you shows up on [Home](https://pencel.ai/docs/concepts/home.html), and anything that couldn't finish appears there too, with **See why**. Each room's **Activity** tab shows what that room is doing now, what's coming up and what it did before. **Studio ▸ Jobs** is the complete record behind all of it.

## Open Jobs

Go to **Studio ▸ Jobs**. At the top you may see:

* **Attention rows**: a workflow whose **Last run failed**, or one that **Missed its schedule**. Click the row to open it.
* **Running now**: work in progress right now. Click a row to watch it, or **Cancel** to stop it.

Below that are two tabs:

* **All runs**: every run, newest first, with its status, workflow, start time, duration, cost, number of steps and what started it (**Manual**, **Scheduled** or **Chat**). Click a row to open its run log.
* **By workflow**: one card per workflow with its latest run and a row of small bars for its recent runs. Search with **Search jobs…**, or filter by **All**, **Needs you**, **Running**, **Failed** or **Clean**. Cards are grouped into **Needs attention**, **Recent** and **Not run yet**. An **Overdue** tag means the workflow missed its last expected run.

## What the status labels mean

The two tabs use slightly different words for the same thing.

| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| **Clean**, **Sent** | Finished without problems. |
| **No updates** | Ran and found nothing new. Normal for a routine that watches for changes. |
| **Warnings**, **Sent with issues** | Finished, but something went wrong along the way. Check the result. |
| **Failed** | Didn't finish. Open it to see why. |
| **Needs you**, **Needs your input**, **Ready to send** | Waiting for your answer or approval. |
| **Running**, **Queued** | In progress, or waiting to start. |
| **Cancelled**, **Interrupted** | Stopped by you, or cut off (for example, when Pencel closed mid-run). |

## Open one workflow's history

Click a card on the **By workflow** tab. At the top:

* **Pause schedule** or **Resume schedule** (only for workflows on a schedule).
* **Edit in Workflows** to change the workflow itself.
* **Run Now** to run it once, right away.

Underneath, **Last run** shows how the latest run ended. If it failed or finished with warnings, click **Retry** next to it. **Trust** sums up recent runs, for example "5 clean · 6 runs · 1 repaired" (repaired means Pencel hit a problem and fixed it along the way).

Below that is every run of this workflow. Each row's **⋯** menu has **Run again** and **Delete run**.

## Read a run log

Click any run to open its log. You'll see what the run did, in order, and how it ended: **All done**, or **Finished with errors**. The end of the log shows the total cost in credits and links to any documents it created.

From there you can:

* **Save as document**: keep the result in Documents. Results are saved there automatically only when the workflow's output goes to **Workspace**.
* **Chat with Results**: start a conversation about the result, for example to ask a follow-up question or turn it into an email.
* **Resume** or **Cancel run**: for a run that was paused or interrupted, for example when Pencel closed mid-run.
* **Retry** a failed step: when a run failed at a particular step, you can retry that step. Use the box next to it to describe what to do differently (optional).

## When something went wrong

Common causes, and what to do:

* **An account got disconnected.** Go to **Settings ▸ Connections** and look for **Needs sign-in**. Sign in again, then **Retry**. See [Connect your accounts](https://pencel.ai/docs/guides/setting-up-connections.html).
* **You ran out of credits, or hit a budget.** See [Control what you spend](https://pencel.ai/docs/guides/managing-costs.html).
* **Pencel was closed or your computer was asleep.** A daily, weekly or monthly workflow that was due runs once when Pencel opens again. Background checks simply start again.
* **It's waiting for you.** A run marked **Needs you** is waiting for an approval or an answer. See [Review and approve work](https://pencel.ai/docs/guides/reviewing-and-approving.html).

## How long history is kept

Go to **Settings ▸ Activity Log ▸ Retention**. **Run history** keeps the full step-by-step record for **30 days**, **90 days** (the default), **1 year** or **Keep forever**. After that, a run keeps its outcome and cost, but the detail is summarized.

The activity log itself (approvals, deletions, permission denials and credential access) is kept for 7 years. See [Data handling](https://pencel.ai/docs/privacy-and-security/data-handling.html).

## Related

* [Run work on a schedule](https://pencel.ai/docs/guides/scheduling-automation.html)
* [Build a workflow](https://pencel.ai/docs/guides/building-a-playbook.html)
* [Studio: agents, workflows and jobs](https://pencel.ai/docs/concepts/studio.html)
* [Troubleshooting](https://pencel.ai/docs/reference/troubleshooting.html)