Process for troubleshooting automations? (Finding airtables tools insufficient)

[oreocereus]

What is your process for troubleshooting automations in complex bases that have information changing regularly?

I have an error occurring with an automation that I am struggling to troubleshoot. I can't seem to replicate the error in my testing, which means I am not accounting for/considering an action happening when the base and relevant records are interacted with. 

I am struggling to identify the issue, as:
1) Airtable doesn't instantly notify you of the issue (notifications take 5-45 minutes) - which is bizarre. In a base where there are likely many more interactions with the record in question by the time I realise the automation has failed, this makes it hard to walk back and figure out what conditions are creating the error.
2) Record revision histories don't seem to be overly thorough:
a) the log doesn't show where an automation fails,
b) the revision history timestamps are recorded unhelpfully as "17 hours ago" etc - which makes it hard to determine which revision created an issue

What's your process? Are there other tools that help you work through these issues?

[Mike_AutomaticN]

Hey!

Did you already try figuring it out by checking the Automation History tab for each automation run?
See image below!
It will show exactly where the automation fails.

I hope this helps. Otherwise, feel free to send me a DM.

[oreocereus]

Hey yep, I know about the automation history. The difficulty is that there are a lot of automations running, and there doesn't seem to be a way to see the history of all automation runs (and the order they've occurred in, as often one triggers another, or vice versa). So I have been going in circles with the automation history, especially as there is no instant notification when an automation fails.
I am struggling to replicate the order of actions (and overlapping automations) that create specific failures. 

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Check out this solution by @Alexey_Gusev:
https://community.airtable.com/t5/automations/connecting-automations-to-a-base-for-run-history/m-p/1...

Won't help with your past stuff but might help with the future stuff, especially the bit about registering the start / end of the automation run

[ScottWorld]

If you have the budget to pay for an additional tool, you may want to think about outsourcing your automations to Make’s advanced automations for Airtable.

Make has incredibly detailed error logs, and you can also setup error handlers for each module to do whatever you’d like when a specific module fails. Also, you can setup each scenario (automation) to process each triggering record in sequential order, meaning that it will never run a single automation for 2 different records at the same time. 

If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread.

For example, here is how you would instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

I also give live demonstrations of how to use Make in many of my Airtable podcast appearances here.

For example, in this video, I show how to work with Airtable arrays in Make.

— ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant