Troubleshooting
What to check when the composer is disabled, a tool is missing, a workflow will not publish, or the preview panel stays empty.
The composer is disabled
Companion blocks sending in two situations.
No tenant or environment selected. Click the connection badge; if the popover reads "Selecting tenant / environment…", choose a tenant and environment in the platform. Companion needs both to know where its writes go.
The socket is not connected. The badge reads Connecting or Disconnected. Open the popover and click Reconnect. If it will not connect, the harness may be unreachable — check with whoever operates your deployment.
A tool I enabled is not being used
The agent's tool set is assembled once, when a conversation connects, and stays fixed for that conversation's lifetime.
Start a new conversation after changing anything in Settings — enabling an MCP server, toggling a tool, opting into a native service. The change is saved; it just is not in the conversation you are currently in.
A tool shows as Unavailable
Open Settings → Tools and read the reason on the row:
| Reason | Fix |
|---|---|
| Built-in MCP turned off | Enable it in Settings → MCP. |
| Server not connected | The MCP server is enabled but has no valid token. Click Connect or Reconnect. |
| Service unreachable | The native service is opted in but not responding. It is an infrastructure issue, not a settings one. |
| Not enabled | Opt the native service in under Settings → MCP. |
| Designer / lifecycle disabled | The capability is switched off for the deployment. Ask your platform administrator. |
The preview panel stays empty
The panel only populates when a workflow is actually in play. If you asked a general question, there is nothing to preview.
If you asked for a workflow and the panel shows Failed, the reason is printed in the panel. Common causes are a request the designer could not resolve into operators, or a required app that is not connected. Rephrase with more specifics, or connect the missing app first.
If the panel shows Needs your input, answer the listed questions in the chat. Design does not resume until you do.
The canvas section is missing but operators are listed
The graph could not be rendered as a canvas, so the panel fell back to the operator list. The design itself is intact — save and open it in the real editor, which renders it properly.
Open in canvas is greyed out
No workflow record exists yet, so there is nothing to open.
Normally the record is created automatically, before the designer even runs, so this state is brief. If it persists, the create stage failed — check the status strip for an error naming it. Once Record created appears, the link activates.
Publish failed
The status strip replaces the failed stage with an error naming what went wrong. Work backwards through the three stages:
- Create failed. The record could not be made — usually a name collision or a scope problem. Ask Companion to use a different name.
- Save failed. The record exists but the graph could not be written to it. The record is still openable in the canvas; the graph is not on it yet.
- Publish failed. The record and graph exist, but the engine could not compile the version. The compilation status names the problem. Refine the workflow to fix it and publish again.
The preview graph survives all three, so you never have to redesign from scratch after a failure.
On a validation or compilation error, Companion usually offers to repair it itself — it explains the error and asks whether to try. Accepting has it refine the workflow with the error restated, save, and retry. It stops after two attempts rather than looping.
Published, but not ready to invoke
The strip shows Published ✓ with a compilation status but no · ready to invoke. The version compiled but the engine has not reported it as invocable. Check the workflow in monitoring and confirm its trigger is configured — a workflow with no usable trigger compiles but cannot be called.
An approval expired
Approval requests fail closed. If you did not respond in time, the call was blocked and the turn moved on. Ask Companion to try the action again; a fresh approval request is issued.
A form or link expired
Forms and link cards carry deadlines. Once one lapses, its URL stops working and its values will not be accepted. Ask Companion to repeat the step and a new one is issued.
An app I need has no connector
Companion tells you when a requested app has no connector rather than pretending to connect it, and suggests what is available instead. If the app is essential, it needs a connector built in Integration Studio — or an API imported and turned into tools with the API Composer.
The gateway key is gone
Gateway API keys are displayed once, in the browser, at mint time. Neither Companion nor the platform can show the value again — Companion never had it. Mint a new key and update whatever consumes it.
A conversation lost its history
Reopening a past conversation reloads its transcript from the server. If it comes back empty, the history load failed; the conversation record is intact. Switch away and back to retry.
Note that inline cards — approvals, forms, tables, preview panels — are part of the live session. A reloaded transcript shows the messages, not a replay of every card.
Companion did something I did not expect
Read the tool-call cards in the transcript. Each one shows the tool name, the exact arguments, and the result. The gap between what you meant and what ran is almost always visible there.
If a consequential action ran without asking, check whether you asked for it by name — an explicit instruction counts as its own approval, and it is recorded in the audit trail as such. See Approvals and tool tiers.
To prevent a class of action outright, disable those tools in Settings → Tools rather than relying on catching each request.