How to Monitor Your Power Automate Flows (And Know When They Fail)

Power Automate is deeply integrated into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem — but when a flow silently stops running, you won't know until something breaks downstream. Here's how to add proactive failure alerts to any Power Automate flow.

The problem — silent failures in Power Automate

Power Automate provides run history and some built-in notifications for failed runs. But these only work when the flow actually executes and fails. They don't help when the flow stops being triggered entirely.

Common silent failure scenarios:

• A scheduled flow's trigger gets disabled or misconfigureds during a policy change
• A connector's authentication expires, preventing the flow from running
• A license change removes access to a premium connector
• A dependency (SharePoint list, mailbox) is deleted or renamed

In all of these cases, Power Automate's built-in monitoring won't alert you — because the flow never reaches the point of executing and failing. TaskPulse fills this gap.

How TaskPulse monitors Power Automate

Using the Dead Man's Switch pattern, your Power Automate flow sends an HTTP ping to TaskPulse at the end of every successful run. If TaskPulse doesn't receive the ping within the expected interval + tolerance, it alerts you immediately.

• Heartbeat monitor — for scheduled and automated flows
• Signal monitor — for tracking business throughput (items processed per run)

Step-by-step: Setting up monitoring for Power Automate

Step 1: Create a free TaskPulse account

Sign up at taskpulse.co/register. The Free plan includes 5 Heartbeat monitors — no credit card required.

Step 2: Create a Heartbeat monitor

In the TaskPulse dashboard, click New Monitor → Heartbeat. Name it after your flow (e.g., "Power Automate: daily report") and set the expected interval. Copy the monitor UUID.

Step 3: Add an HTTP action at the END of your Power Automate flow

In your Power Automate flow editor, add an HTTP action as the final step. Configure it as follows:

{
  "method": "POST",
  "uri": "https://api.taskpulse.co/ping/YOUR-MONITOR-UUID"
}

To send metadata with the ping (Smart Heartbeat — always free):

{
  "method": "POST",
  "uri": "https://api.taskpulse.co/ping/YOUR-MONITOR-UUID",
  "headers": { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  "body": {
    "flow": "@{workflow().name}",
    "run_id": "@{workflow().run.name}"
  }
}

Step 4: Set expected interval + tolerance

In TaskPulse, set the interval to match your flow's schedule and add a tolerance window to account for minor execution delays.

Step 5: Configure alerts

Configure email alerts on the Free plan. Upgrade to Pro ($9/mo) for Slack and Discord. Business plan adds Custom Webhooks for integration with Microsoft Teams or any other endpoint.

Tracking business events with Signal monitors

Use Signal monitors to track the volume of work your Power Automate flows process:

{
  "method": "POST",
  "uri": "https://api.taskpulse.co/signal/YOUR-MONITOR-UUID",
  "headers": { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  "body": {
    "status": "success",
    "flow": "@{workflow().name}",
    "run_id": "@{workflow().run.name}"
  }
}

What happens when a flow fails

1. Your Power Automate flow stops running silently
2. No ping arrives at TaskPulse within the expected interval + tolerance
3. Monitor status changes to failed
4. Alert sent to your configured channels
5. You investigate and fix — next successful run resets the monitor

Pricing

• Free: 5 Heartbeat + 5 Signal monitors, 100 events/mo, email alerts
• Pro ($9/mo): 50 monitors, 50k events, Slack + Discord, 1-min intervals
• Business ($29/mo): 200 monitors, 1M events, Custom Webhooks, 10-sec intervals

See the full pricing page.

Frequently asked questions