# Pausing Workflows

Pausing a workflow stops new runs of that workflow from starting. Use it when you need to halt a workflow temporarily without deleting its triggers or cancelling work that is already running.

> **Info:** Workflow pause is different from worker pause. Pausing a worker stops that
>   worker from picking up new tasks. Pausing a workflow applies to one workflow
>   across every worker.

## What happens while a workflow is paused

- **In-flight runs keep running.** Pause does not cancel or interrupt tasks that have already started.
- **New runs do not start.** Event and manual triggers still create runs, but those runs stay queued until you unpause, or until the [queue TTL](#queue-ttl) expires. Cron and scheduled triggers can instead skip creating a run entirely (see below).
- **Other workflows are unaffected.** Workers keep running other workflows as usual.

## Cron and scheduled runs

When you pause, you choose how [cron](/v1/cron-runs) and [scheduled](/v1/scheduled-runs) triggers behave while the workflow is paused:

Behavior, Effect

**QUEUE**, The trigger still creates a run. The run stays queued and starts after you unpause, unless the queue TTL expires first.
**DROP**, The trigger is skipped. No run is created for that cron tick or schedule while the workflow is paused.

Cron and scheduled behavior are set independently. Event-triggered and manually triggered runs always queue while the workflow is paused; they are not controlled by these settings.

## Queue TTL

Queued runs waiting on a paused workflow have a TTL. If a run is still queued when its age exceeds the TTL, Hatchet cancels it. The dashboard defaults this to `24h`. Duration strings use the same format as [timeouts](/v1/timeouts) (for example `30m` or `24h`).

## Unpausing

Unpausing clears the pause settings and requeues runs that are still waiting. Runs that already expired under the TTL stay cancelled.

## From the dashboard

1. Open the workflow.
2. Go to the **Settings** tab.
3. Under **Workflow status**, choose **Paused**.

<figure style={{ margin: "2rem auto", maxWidth: "100%", textAlign: "center" }}>
  <img
    src="/workflow-pause-status-dropdown.png"
    alt="Workflow status dropdown in the Settings tab"
    style={{ width: "100%", height: "auto", borderRadius: "8px" }}
  />
</figure>

4. Confirm and set cron behavior, scheduled behavior, and queue TTL.

<figure style={{ margin: "2rem auto", maxWidth: "100%", textAlign: "center" }}>
  <img
    src="/workflow-pause-confirmation-modal.png"
    alt="Pause workflow confirmation modal"
    style={{ width: "100%", height: "auto", borderRadius: "8px" }}
  />
</figure>

5. To resume, set **Workflow status** back to **Active** and confirm.

## From the Python SDK

```python
from datetime import timedelta

my_workflow.pause(
    queue_ttl=timedelta(hours=24),
    paused_workflow_cron_run_queue_behavior="QUEUE",
    paused_workflow_scheduled_run_queue_behavior="QUEUE",
)

my_workflow.unpause()
```

Async equivalents are `aio_pause` and `aio_unpause`.