Salesforce Summer ‘25 Release: The New Debug Panel in Flow Builder

Building automations using Salesforce Flow has become the norm for Salesforce professionals, but as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. It is essential to ensure automation functions as intended before activation, proactively identifying and addressing potential issues to guarantee seamless operation across all scenarios.

In this post, we’ll look into the Debug option within Flow Builder, why it should always be part of your workflow, and how this option is being enhanced as part of the Summer ‘25 Salesforce release. 

Debugging a Flow

Primarily, if an existing flow is failing and you need to dig deeper, this feature will be your trusty sidekick that reveals what went wrong and where exactly the error happened. Also, if you are building a Flow and editing an existing one and now getting ready to activate the new version, it’s always worth taking the time to debug it first, right within Flow Builder.

The debugging functionality has been around for a long time with the purpose of triggering the flow execution exactly as it would happen in a real production scenario, for you to spot or replicate any potential issues. 

For record-triggered flows (including scheduled paths) or even screen flows, for instance, you should always use this option to ensure the automation or wizard you created works as expected. (Debug runs can also be used to generate Flow Tests, but that is a story for another time.)

Let’s take a look at an example. Below is a record-triggered flow that notifies the Account Owner when a High Priority Case related to an Account they own is opened. If the Case is still open after seven days, a reminder is sent for them to reach out to collaborate with the assigned service agent towards a faster resolution for their customer. 

Clicking the Debug button opens a pop-up window, prompting you to choose a Case record to use, and which of the paths should be run – the immediate or the scheduled one, in this case. 

Within the Debug Panel on the right-hand side that appears following the run, you can see the breakdown of which criteria were met as well as how the flow executed given the selected record, as well as details for each of the elements used, alongside the execution time. There are a few available filters, as well as the option to expand or collapse all the debug details.  

While this is a very simple flow with just a couple of elements on the path selected to run and cause an error, troubleshooting an error in more complex automations can be quite time-consuming. What if going through these details and finding exactly what you’re looking for could be so much faster? 

A New Look and More Features

Salesforce professionals using Flow Builder will be delighted by the multiple Summer ‘25 enhancements. Along with a modernized look and feel, the Debug panel has significant updates to improve troubleshooting and user-friendliness.

When debugging a flow in a Summer ‘25-enabled org, you will immediately notice the new way all the details are organized in cards! This new grouping style offers an immediate view of all components, as well as a brief summary at the top of each one for you to know what happened without actually having to expand the details for the element. 

To add to this, Records and Record Collections will also be much easier to understand when reviewing the CRUD, Collection Filter, and Collection Sort elements in the debug details. 

You can now also say goodbye to unnecessary scrolling, as the entire panel can be expanded to up to 80% of the screen, and all details can be copied to the clipboard with just a click of a button for easy sharing outside of Salesforce.  

But wait…there’s more! While you can still expand all cards to surface the details, there’s no need to go through all of them or even use Ctrl/Cmd + F anymore. The newly introduced search bar allows you to quickly find the keywords you’re looking for within the panel, be they in the name of the card, summary, or the details section. Bonus, the card will be automatically expanded to show you the results of your search within the element details!  

For now, the new debug panel is not available for Screen Flows, but Salesforce did share that it is a work in progress! 

Final Thoughts

All in all, automations don’t always go according to plan, and having the readily available debug option to see exactly what is happening within your Flow can streamline the entire troubleshooting process, now with an even easier-to-analyze output. 

It is evident that Flow Builder is on a continuous path of improvement in all areas, so we can’t wait to see what Salesforce has in store next!