# Run a workflow by hand

Start a workflow yourself, whenever you choose.

Use it for jobs you start when they’re due: a month-end report, a clean-up, or a backfill. Nothing starts it on its own. It has no address and no schedule.

## Add the trigger

1. In a new workflow, press **Add a trigger**, type `manual` and choose **Manual**.
2. Add your steps, then press **Publish**.

## Run it

Press **Run** in the top bar. It runs the published version now, on real data, and opens the run.

![The top bar of a live workflow: Run, beside Unpublish.](https://docs.gorunner.io/img/build/manual-run-light.jpg)

**Test** is different: it runs your draft, as a test run.

From **Workflows**, press **Run…** on the workflow’s row, or **Run now…** in its menu. Both ask first, then run the published version.

**Can I run a workflow with another trigger by hand?**

Yes, if it’s live: use **Run now…** in **Workflows**. A webhook workflow then runs with an empty request body.

## Check it worked

The run opens on its own page, and shows Worked when it ends.

## For developers

[Run a workflow](https://docs.gorunner.io/api/runs/run-workflow) starts it with an API token. The JSON you send is the trigger data as it is: send `{"month": "2026-10"}` and read `{{trigger.month}}`. Add `?environment=production` to run the published version. Without it, a workflow with unpublished edits runs its draft as a test. To describe the inputs up front, use a [Form](https://docs.gorunner.io/build/start-from-a-form) or an [MCP Tool](https://docs.gorunner.io/apps/mcp-tool) trigger instead. A workflow imported from another automation tool that you started by hand there comes in with this trigger.

## Related

- [Choose a trigger](https://docs.gorunner.io/build/choose-a-trigger): Which trigger fits which job · 3 min
- [Test, publish and go back to a version](https://docs.gorunner.io/build/test-and-publish): Test your draft, then make it live · 5 min
- [Run a workflow](https://docs.gorunner.io/api/runs/run-workflow): Start a run with an API token

Source: https://docs.gorunner.io/build/run-by-hand