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Execute a workflow

This guide walks through executing an HSF workflow end to end — from finding it in IDP to verifying the output is visible in the catalog.

Before you begin​

  • You have been added to the HSF Users group (or HSF Admins).
  • HSF has been deployed and post-deployment configuration is complete.
  • You know which workflow you want to run. See How workflows work for the full list of default workflows.

Steps​

1. Find the workflow in IDP​

  1. Navigate to IDP in your Harness account.
  2. Select Workflows from the left navigation.
  3. Browse or search for the workflow you want to run.
tip

If you don't see the workflow you're looking for, it may not be registered in IDP yet. Ask your HSF Admin to run Register Custom IDP Templates to sync the latest workflows.

2. Execute the workflow​

  1. Click the workflow to open it.
  2. Click Execute.
  3. Fill in the required inputs. Each field has a description explaining what it expects — refer to the individual workflow reference page for a full breakdown of all inputs and valid values.
  4. Click Create to submit.

3. Monitor the execution​

After submitting, HSF starts the Create and Manage IACM Workspaces pipeline in the background. To monitor progress:

  1. After clicking Create, select Show Logs to see the initial output.
  2. Scroll down in the logs panel — you'll see a link to the running Create and Manage IACM Workspaces pipeline. Click it to open the pipeline execution view.
  3. Monitor the pipeline run. Once it completes, it will automatically trigger the Provision Workspace pipeline.

4. Respond to approval requests​

At two points during execution, an HSF Admin will receive an email notification asking them to approve the next step:

  1. Entity creation approval — review the summary of what will be provisioned and approve or reject.
  2. Terraform plan approval — review the full resource diff and confirm the changes are expected before approving.

Approvals are completed directly inside the pipeline execution view in Harness.

note

If no approval notification arrives within a few minutes of submission, check that the HSF Admins group has notification settings configured. See Post-deployment configuration.

5. Verify the output​

Once the workflow completes successfully:

  • Navigate to IDP → Catalog and search for the resource that was provisioned. The workflow output is automatically registered as a catalog entry.
  • Navigate to IaCM → Workspaces and confirm the workspace was created in the correct project.

Making changes to an existing resource​

You don't need to re-run the workflow from IDP to update a resource. Because each workflow creates an IaCM workspace, you can:

  1. Navigate to IaCM → Workspaces and find the workspace for the resource you want to update.
  2. Under Variables → OpenTofu Variables, update the relevant variable.
  3. Save the variable, then run Provision Workspace on the workspace to apply the change (this will go through the approval flow again).

Troubleshoot a failed workflow​

If a pipeline step fails during workflow execution:

  • Open the pipeline execution view — navigate to the pipeline run link visible in the IDP execution log or find it directly under the Solutions Factory project in Harness.
  • Check the step logs — click the failed step to expand its log output. Most failures will have a clear error message.

Common failure causes:

SymptomLikely cause
Pipeline fails immediately at startAn account-level OPA policy is blocking execution — check with your Harness admin
Approval notification never arrivesHSF Admins group notification settings not configured
Image pull failureDockerHub connector is using anonymous auth and has been rate limited — add credentials to hsf_dockerhub_connector
IDP catalog entry not appearing after completionRun Register Custom IDP Templates to re-sync