Scheduled Path Patterns

Activate when designing a record-triggered Flow with delayed execution — "after 1 hour," "1 day before Close Date," "every Monday at 9 AM after creation." Scheduled Paths replace many time-based workflow rule use cases but have their own batching, monitoring, and failure semantics.

Before Starting

• Understand the offset anchor. Scheduled Paths offset from either the record-triggered event time OR a field value on the record.
• Plan for volume. Scheduled Paths queue paused Flow Interviews; bulk inserts create bulk paused interviews with batch-size tuning.
• Know the monitoring surface. Setup → Paused Flow Interviews shows queued interviews; failures surface in the Flow debug log and Apex exception email.

Core Concepts

Offset types

• From the trigger event: "1 hour after record is created"
• From a field value: "3 days before CloseDate" — uses a datetime/date field on the record

Batch size

Salesforce processes paused interviews in batches (default 200, tunable in Process Automation settings). Batching controls governor limits for the collection of resumed flows.

Paused Flow Interview

When a Flow hits a Scheduled Path wait, it suspends as a Paused Flow Interview. The interview resumes at the scheduled time. Monitor at Setup → Paused Flow Interviews.

Execution context

Scheduled path execution runs in system context by default (like other record-triggered Flow), with its own governor limit scope. Updates to records made in the scheduled branch are separate transactions from the triggering transaction.

That default is set by the Flow and is not changed by the Summer '26 Apex inversion — no class apiVersion moves a record-triggered Flow into user mode. The version gate applies only to Apex invoked from the scheduled branch, where each invocable class's own .cls-meta.xml apiVersion decides its default database mode: at 67.0+ its SOQL, SOSL, DML and Database calls enforce the running user's sharing rules, FLS and object permissions with no keyword at all, while the same class pinned at 66.0 or earlier still defaults to system mode. So a scheduled path that worked can start throwing when that class's apiVersion is raised — upgrading the org's release does not, on its own, change anything. Canonical table: agents/_shared/AGENT_CONTRACT.md § Apex security idiom by API version.

Common Patterns

Pattern: Follow-up reminder 24 hours after creation

Record-Triggered Flow on Case Create → Scheduled Path 1 day after creation → Check IsClosed → If open, send notification to owner.

Pattern: Pre-renewal email 30 days before renewal date

Trigger on Contract update → Scheduled Path 30 days before RenewalDate__c → Send email alert.

Pattern: Re-check condition at path execution

Always re-query record state in the scheduled branch. The record may have changed between queue-time and execution-time.

Decision Guidance

Need	Mechanism
Run N hours/days after record event	Scheduled Path
Run at an absolute time (9 AM Monday)	Scheduled Flow or cron
Run when a field value changes	Record-triggered Flow (no scheduled path)
Delayed re-check of async state	Scheduled Path + re-query
High-volume time-based fan-out	Apex Schedulable + Queueable

Recommended Workflow

1. Identify the offset anchor: event time vs field value.
2. Define the exact offset (units: minutes, hours, days).
3. Add explicit filter criteria to the path entry — avoid queuing millions of no-op interviews.
4. In the scheduled branch, re-query or re-check the record's current state.
5. Tune Process Automation batch size for your volume.
6. Monitor Paused Flow Interviews in Setup; handle failures via admin email.
7. Test with a bulk insert to confirm batch behavior.

Review Checklist

• Offset type explicit (event vs field)
• Entry criteria scoped tightly (no "always queue")
• Scheduled branch re-checks current record state
• Batch size reviewed for volume profile
• Paused Flow Interview monitoring documented
• Admin notification on scheduled-path errors enabled
• Bulk insert test confirms expected behavior

Salesforce-Specific Gotchas

1. Deleting the triggering record deletes its paused interview. The scheduled branch never runs for deleted records.
2. Changing the source field after the path is scheduled does NOT reschedule. The scheduled time is computed once at entry.
3. Flow version updates do not migrate paused interviews. Queued interviews execute under the version that queued them; test version swaps carefully.

Output Artifacts

Artifact	Description
Scheduled Path design	Offset anchor, filter, re-check logic
Monitoring runbook	Where to check Paused Flow Interviews + error emails
Volume test plan	Bulk insert → expected queued count

Related Skills

• flow/scheduled-flow-patterns — absolute-time scheduled flows
• admin/migrate-workflow-pb — replacing time-based workflow rules
• apex/apex-queueable-patterns — programmatic async alternatives