# Run a template You can run a template manually from either your account templates page or a project templates page. You can see all of your team's templates in the team templates page, while the project templates page will only contain templates that have created that project or affected project resources. Open the template you want to use and click run to start a template run. You can add or edit [argument overrides](create-a-template#provide-secrets-securely-to-a-template) to change values and secrets for the template run. You can also provide arguments for a template run [using the API](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/api/templates/run-template). This allows you to use one template and provide different configuration and secret values on each run simply by passing the required arguments. ## View run status and history When you run a template it will be scheduled to run, and enter the `pending` state. It will shortly enter the `running` state, where it will begin running through the workflows defined in the template. You can see the status of each template, as well as the repository and file if [GitOps is enabled](gitops-on-northflank). Each of your individual templates contains a list of template runs, the status of the template run, the commit hash (if the template run was triggered by a commit to a repository), and the time the template run was triggered. ### View template run You can click on a template run to view the status of the components of your template, including creating/updating the project, overall workflows, and resources within individual workflows. Each node will indicate the state it is in, which can help you debug templates that are taking longer than expected to complete, or failing. Each node can be expanded to view the template JSON for `running` nodes, and `successful` or `failed` nodes will also contain a `response` object from the Northflank API. Nodes can also receive a `retries` object, detailing the number of attempts and the time of the next attempt. ![The response for a node from a template run in the Northflank application](https://assets.northflank.com/documentation/v1/application/infrastructure-as-code/run-a-template/template-run-response.png) ### View resource changes After a run succeeds, fails, or is aborted, View diff appears when recorded resource changes are available. You need permission to read the template or workflow to view these changes. 1. Open the run from its run history. 2. Select View diff. 3. Expand a resource to inspect its recorded changes. 4. Select Download JSON to save that resource's `before` and `after` values. For example, a description change from `API` to `Public API` shows the previous and updated values. The comparison covers changes reported by resource nodes. It can omit actions and intermediate updates to the same resource. A failed run can contain changes from successful steps, and a missing View diff button does not prove that nothing changed. Review downloaded configuration for sensitive values before sharing it. ### Template node states Workflows and nodes can have the following states: Pending: the node or workflow will run when previous steps are executed successfully Running: the node or workflow is currently being executed Waiting: the node is waiting for an action to be completed, will eventually timeout unless it receives a successful response Retrying: the node has failed on previous runs, but is being executed again (up to 3 attempts) Success: the node or workflow has completed successfully Failed: the node or workflow has failed to execute, or exceeded 3 retries ## Run a template automatically You can enable run a template automatically so that any changes made to the template will trigger a template run, whether it's updated in the Northflank UI, via the API, or changed in the Git repository (if [GitOps is enabled](gitops-on-northflank)). This is convenient if you want to manage your resources via templates, as triggering a run automatically will mean your resources will be updated to reflect the template specifications on change. > [!warning] > > As your modified template will run as soon as it's updated, make sure your changes are as intended before saving or pushing to the repository, especially if the template affects your production environment. Any other templates linked via GitOps will also run automatically, if this option is enabled for those templates. ## Update a template Templates can create new resources and update existing resources in your projects. Each supported resource node's [update mode](template-nodes#resource-update-modes) controls what happens when the template runs again. The default `put` mode creates or replaces resource configuration, `patch` updates supplied fields, and `create` skips resources that already exist. An update that changes a field that the resource does not allow you to change fails. A `patch` node also fails if its target resource does not exist. Removing a resource node from the template does not delete the resource. The node's `name` identifies its target resource and does not rename an existing resource. With `put` or `create`, a new name can create another resource alongside the existing one. If you have enabled [run a template automatically](#run-your-template-automatically) the template will be run immediately with any changes when you save the updated template. If you have also [enabled GitOps](create-a-template#enable-gitops-for-your-template) the template will be run as soon as your changes are committed. ## Next steps - [Share a template: Share templates with your team or the public.](/v1/application/infrastructure-as-code/share-a-template) - [GitOps on Northflank: Use templates and workflows in a Git repository to trigger changes to your config and resources.](/v1/application/infrastructure-as-code/gitops-on-northflank)