---
title: "Error Handling | Workflows"
description: "Learn how to handle errors in Mastra workflows using step retries, conditional branching, and monitoring."
packages:
  - "@mastra/core"
---

# Error Handling

Mastra workflows support error handling through result status checks after execution, retry policies for transient failures, and lifecycle callbacks for centralized error logging or alerting.

## Handling workflow results

When you run a workflow, the result object contains the status and any errors that occurred.

### Checking the result status

```typescript title="src/run-workflow.ts"
import { mastra } from "./mastra";

const workflow = mastra.getWorkflow("myWorkflow");
const run = await workflow.createRun();
const result = await run.start({ inputData: { value: "test" } });

switch (result.status) {
  case 'success':
    console.log('Workflow completed:', result.result);
    break;
  case 'failed':
    console.error('Workflow failed:', result.error);
    break;
  case 'suspended':
    console.log('Workflow suspended, waiting for resume');
    break;
}
```

### Result object structure

The result object contains:

- `status` - The workflow status: `'success'`, `'failed'`, `'suspended'`, or `'tripwire'`
- `result` - The workflow output (when status is `'success'`)
- `error` - Error details (when status is `'failed'`)
- `steps` - Individual step results with their status and output

### Accessing step results

You can inspect individual step results to understand where a failure occurred:

```typescript title="src/run-workflow.ts"
const result = await run.start({ inputData: { value: "test" } });

if (result.status === 'failed') {
  // Find which step failed
  for (const [stepId, stepResult] of Object.entries(result.steps)) {
    if (stepResult.status === 'failed') {
      console.error(`Step ${stepId} failed:`, stepResult.error);
    }
  }
}
```

## Lifecycle callbacks

For scenarios where you need to handle workflow completion without awaiting the result—such as background jobs, fire-and-forget workflows, or centralized logging—you can use lifecycle callbacks.

### onFinish

Called when a workflow completes with any status (success, failed, suspended, or tripwire):

```typescript {8-15} title="src/mastra/workflows/order-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const orderWorkflow = createWorkflow({
  id: 'order-processing',
  inputSchema: z.object({ orderId: z.string() }),
  outputSchema: z.object({ orderId: z.string(), status: z.string() }),
  options: {
    onFinish: async (result) => {
      await db.updateOrderStatus(result.result?.orderId, result.status);
      await analytics.track('workflow_completed', {
        workflowId: 'order-processing',
        status: result.status,
      });
    },
  },
});
```

The `onFinish` callback receives:

- `status` - The workflow status
- `result` - The workflow output (on success)
- `error` - Error details (on failure)
- `steps` - Individual step results
- `tripwire` - Tripwire info (if status is `'tripwire'`)
- `runId` - The unique identifier for this workflow run
- `workflowId` - The workflow's identifier
- `resourceId` - Optional resource identifier (if provided when creating the run)
- `getInitData()` - Function that returns the initial input data
- `mastra` - The Mastra instance (if workflow is registered with Mastra)
- `requestContext` - Request-scoped context data
- `logger` - The workflow's logger instance
- `state` - The workflow's current state object

### onError

Called only when a workflow fails (status is `'failed'` or `'tripwire'`):

```typescript {8-14} title="src/mastra/workflows/payment-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const paymentWorkflow = createWorkflow({
  id: 'payment-processing',
  inputSchema: z.object({ amount: z.number() }),
  outputSchema: z.object({ transactionId: z.string() }),
  options: {
    onError: async (errorInfo) => {
      await alertService.notify({
        channel: 'payments-alerts',
        message: `Payment workflow failed: ${errorInfo.error?.message}`,
      });
      await errorTracker.capture(errorInfo.error);
    },
  },
});
```

The `onError` callback receives:

- `status` - Either `'failed'` or `'tripwire'`
- `error` - Error details
- `steps` - Individual step results
- `tripwire` - Tripwire info (if status is `'tripwire'`)
- `runId` - The unique identifier for this workflow run
- `workflowId` - The workflow's identifier
- `resourceId` - Optional resource identifier (if provided when creating the run)
- `getInitData()` - Function that returns the initial input data
- `mastra` - The Mastra instance (if workflow is registered with Mastra)
- `requestContext` - Request-scoped context data
- `logger` - The workflow's logger instance
- `state` - The workflow's current state object

### Using both callbacks

You can use both callbacks together:

```typescript {8-16} title="src/mastra/workflows/pipeline-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const pipelineWorkflow = createWorkflow({
  id: 'data-pipeline',
  inputSchema: z.object({ source: z.string() }),
  outputSchema: z.object({ recordsProcessed: z.number() }),
  options: {
    onFinish: async (result) => {
      // Always log completion
      await logger.info('Pipeline completed', { status: result.status });
    },
    onError: async (errorInfo) => {
      // Alert on failures
      await pagerDuty.alert('Data pipeline failed', errorInfo.error);
    },
  },
});
```

### Error handling in callbacks

Errors thrown inside callbacks are caught and logged—they will not affect the workflow result or cause it to fail. This ensures that callback issues don't break your workflows in production.

```typescript
options: {
  onFinish: async (result) => {
    // If this throws, it's logged but the workflow result is unchanged
    await externalService.notify(result);
  },
}
```

## Retries

Mastra has a retry mechanism for workflows or steps that fail due to transient errors, for example when steps interact with external services or resources that may be temporarily unavailable.

## Workflow-level using `retryConfig`

You can configure retries at the workflow level, which applies to all steps in the workflow:

```typescript {7-10} title="src/mastra/workflows/test-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow, createStep } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const step1 = createStep({...});

export const testWorkflow = createWorkflow({
  retryConfig: {
    attempts: 5,
    delay: 2000
  }
})
  .then(step1)
  .commit();
```

## Step-level using `retries`

You can configure retries for individual steps using the `retries` property. This overrides the workflow-level retry configuration for that specific step:

```typescript {16} title="src/mastra/workflows/test-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow, createStep } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const step1 = createStep({
  execute: async () => {
    const response = await fetch('example-url');

    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error('Error');
    }

    return {
      value: ""
    };
  },
  retries: 3
});
```

## Conditional branching

You can create alternative workflow paths based on the success or failure of previous steps using conditional logic:

```typescript {14,18,29-32} title="src/mastra/workflows/test-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow, createStep } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const step1 = createStep({
  execute: async () => {
    try {
      const response = await fetch('example-url');

      if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error('error');
      }

      return {
        status: "ok"
      };
    } catch (error) {
      return {
        status: "error"
      };
    }
  }
});

const step2 = createStep({...});
const fallback = createStep({...});

export const testWorkflow = createWorkflow({})
  .then(step1)
  .branch([
    [async ({ inputData: { status } }) => status === "ok", step2],
    [async ({ inputData: { status } }) => status === "error", fallback]
  ])
  .commit();
```

## Check previous step results

Use `getStepResult()` to inspect a previous step’s results.

```typescript {8} title="src/mastra/workflows/test-workflow.ts"
import { createStep } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const step1 = createStep({...});

const step2 = createStep({
  execute: async ({ getStepResult }) => {
    const step1Result = getStepResult(step1);

    return {
      value: ""
    };
  }
});
```

## Exiting early with `bail()`

Use `bail()` in a step to exit early with a successful result. This returns the provided payload as the step output and ends workflow execution.

```typescript {7} title="src/mastra/workflows/test-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow, createStep } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const step1 = createStep({
  id: 'step1',
  execute: async ({ bail }) => {
    return bail({ result: 'bailed' });
  },
  inputSchema: z.object({ value: z.string() }),
  outputSchema: z.object({ result: z.string() }),
});

export const testWorkflow = createWorkflow({...})
  .then(step1)
  .commit();
```

## Exiting early with `Error()`

Use `throw new Error()` in a step to exit with an error.

```typescript {7} title="src/mastra/workflows/test-workflow.ts"
import { createWorkflow, createStep } from "@mastra/core/workflows";
import { z } from "zod";

const step1 = createStep({
  id: 'step1',
  execute: async () => {
    throw new Error('error');
  },
  inputSchema: z.object({ value: z.string() }),
  outputSchema: z.object({ result: z.string() }),
});

export const testWorkflow = createWorkflow({...})
  .then(step1)
  .commit();
```

## Monitor errors with `stream()`

You can monitor workflows for errors using `stream`:

```typescript {11} title="src/test-workflow.ts"
import { mastra } from "../src/mastra";

const workflow = mastra.getWorkflow("testWorkflow");

const run = await workflow.createRun();

const stream = await run.stream({
  inputData: {
    value: "initial data",
  },
});

for await (const chunk of stream.stream) {
  console.log(chunk.payload.output.stats);
}
```

## Related

- [Control Flow](/docs/v1/workflows/control-flow)
- [Suspend & Resume](/docs/v1/workflows/suspend-and-resume)
- [Time Travel](/docs/v1/workflows/time-travel)
- [Human-in-the-loop](/docs/v1/workflows/human-in-the-loop)
