Publish Your Workflow: Draft, Live, and Versioning

This article explains how draft and live workflow versions work in Intellistack Streamline, who can publish, and what to expect for people already in a workflow session.

Use Publish to control which version of your workflow your users and collaborators experience — without disrupting your ability to keep editing.

Overview

In Streamline Workflow, every workflow exists in two states: Draft and Live. Understanding the difference between them is key to using Publish effectively.

How Versioning Works

When you open your canvas, you are always working in Draft mode. This means you can freely edit steps, update logic, rename nodes, and make any changes without affecting what your users see.

When you're ready to release your changes:

1. Click Publish in the canvas toolbar.
2. Streamline automatically creates a new version and increments the version number (e.g., your draft becomes v1, and a new v2 draft is created on your canvas).
3. The published version (v1) is now Live — it's what users see everywhere outside the canvas.
4. You continue editing in the new v2 draft without touching what's live.

Example: You're on v2 draft and click Publish. Streamline publishes v2 as Live and opens a v3 draft on your canvas for your next round of changes.

What You Can Do When You Publish

When you click Publish, you'll have the option to:

• Rename the version — Give it a meaningful name (e.g., "Added FAQ step" or "June onboarding flow").
• Add a description — Document what changed in this version for your own records or your team's reference.

These details appear in your version history and make it easier to identify versions at a glance.

Draft vs. Live: Where Each Version Runs

Running a Session from the Canvas

When you click Run Session directly from the canvas, it always runs on the current draft version. This is intentional — it lets you test your changes before publishing them.

Running a Session Everywhere Else

Once a version is published as Live, it becomes the version that runs in all other contexts:

• Project page — Sessions started here run on the Live version.
• Workspace page — Users in your workspace run the Live version.
• Share links — If you've shared your workflow via a link, that link runs the Live version.
• Embeds — If you've embedded your workflow, the embed runs the Live version.

This means publishing is how you "push" your changes out to the world. Until you publish, users continue to experience the previous Live version.

Updating the Live Version

If you've made changes in draft and want to update what your users see:

1. Make your edits on the canvas (draft mode).
2. Click Publish.
3. The new version becomes Live, and all shared links, embeds, project pages, and workspace sessions will now run on this version.

Sessions Stay on the Version They Started On

This is an important behavior to be aware of: sessions are pinned to the version they were started on.

If a user starts a session on v1, they will remain on v1 for the duration of that session — even after you publish v2 as Live. New sessions started after you publish will use the new Live version, but existing in-progress sessions are not affected.

You can see which version each session is on from the Sessions page.

Viewing Version History

Each published version is listed in your version history along with:

• The version number (v1, v2, v3…) or the version name (if you added one)
• The description (if you added one)
• Whether it is the current Live version

Restoring a Previous Version

If you want to go back to an older version of your workflow, you can use Restore from the History tab. Restore replaces your current draft with a copy of whichever version you select — it does not affect your published Live version.

Example scenario:

You have three versions:

• v1 — an older published version
• v2 — your current Live version
• v3 — your current draft (the one you're editing)

If your v3 draft has gone in the wrong direction and you want to start over from v1 or v2, click Restore next to that version in the History tab. Streamline will replace v3 with a copy of the version you chose, and that copy becomes your new draft to edit from.

Important: Restore only replaces your current draft. Your Live version is not changed, and your users are not affected.

When to use Restore:

• You've made extensive changes to your draft but want to scrap them and start fresh from a known-good version.
• You want to reference or rebuild from an older version without losing your Live version.
• You went too far down a path with edits and want a clean reset.

To restore a version, open the History tab in the Publish panel, find the version you want, and click Restore.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I go back to a previous Live version? Yes. In your version history, you can set any previously published version back to Live.

Will publishing affect sessions already in progress? No. Active sessions stay on the version they were started on. Only new sessions will use the newly published Live version.

What happens to my draft when I publish? Streamline automatically creates a new draft version for you. Your canvas will update to the new draft so you can keep editing right away.

If I click Run Session from the canvas, which version runs? Always the current draft. The canvas is your testing environment.

My embed/share link isn't showing my latest changes — what do I do? Make sure you've clicked Publish and that your latest version is set to Live. Embeds and share links always reflect the Live version, not the draft.

What does Restore do exactly — does it affect my Live version? No. Restore only replaces your current draft with a copy of the version you select. Your Live version and all active sessions remain completely unaffected. Think of it as overwriting your draft canvas with an older snapshot.

Can I restore from the current Live version? Yes. You can restore from any version in your history, including the current Live version. This is useful if you want your draft to match what's currently live and build forward from there.