Pinning keeps the items a step gave in a test with the draft. Every test after that reuses them instead of running the step — so you can build the steps after an AI step, a paid API or an email without spending tokens or sending it again each time.
Who can do this
Workspace Admins and Editors.
Before you start
The step must have run in a test and given at least one item. See Testing a workflow before you publish it or Run one step on its own.
Steps
- Select the step and open its Output tab.
- Select Pin this output.
A toast says Output pinned — Test runs reuse these 3 items instead of running “…” again. The card shows Pinned, and Output is headed Output · pinned.
To unpin:
- Open the step's Output tab.
- Select Pinned.
A toast says Unpinned — Test runs run “…” again.
What happens next
- Test runs use the pinned items for that step and run everything after it as normal.
- Live runs never use them. A published workflow always runs the step for real.
- The Output tab says why: Later steps test against this. Testing anything after it reuses these items instead of running this step again. Pin while you build the steps after an AI or a paid API; unpin before you trust a test run.
Good to know
- Unpin before your final test. A pinned step does not show whether the step itself still works.
- Pinned items are not exported, and a duplicated step does not take them — they are somebody's real data.
- Triggers cannot be pinned this way. An app trigger has Fetch a sample instead. See Start a workflow when a row is added to Google Sheets.
- AI steps show on Output what each test cost: Every test run of this step spends them again — which is what Pin is for.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Pin this output is not there | The step has no output yet, it is a trigger, or you are a Viewer. | Run a test first. |
| A later step still sees old data | The step is pinned. | Unpin it and test again. |