Important:
If you're signed in with a school account and are under 18, you can’t use any AI features in Workspace Studio. If an agent containing AI steps is shared with you, those steps will be removed when you open the agent.
Error indicators
When an agent has an issue, you get a notification in a few places:
- A red dot on the Google Workspace Studio icon,
in your Gmail inbox.
- A message on the My agents tab in the Studio web app.
- A red dot in the Activity tab in the Studio web app.
The issues that can cause an agent to fail include the following:
- Invalid data during a run: For example, if your agent tries to draft an email to an invalid email address.
- Step configuration error: For example, if you lose access to a chat space or a Google doc used in a step is deleted.
- Usage limits or proactive security measures:
- If your agent runs too often, it reaches a usage limit to prevent overuse.
- If your agent detects malicious content or a potential prompt injection attack, it stops the run and shows an error.
To learn about the issue, click the agent that had the problem.
- For invalid data issues: To find the data that causes the issue, review the agent’s activity feed. To use conditional logic to identify scenarios where variables are invalid or empty, add “Check If” steps.
- For configuration issues: On the step with an issue, check the error message.
After you resolve the issue, dismiss the warning. If you don’t, the agent still counts as an agent with issues.
Common issues and how to fix them
Note: Workspace Studio is in active development and bugs are fixed regularly. If an agent stops working, review its set up and then try turning on the agent again to pick up any bug fixes.
When you turn on an agent
You might see one of these common issues when you try to turn on an agent:
| Error message | Reason and resolution |
|---|---|
| The starter or a step isn't set up correctly | The agent setup is missing a required field. Click each one to see where the issue is and fix it. |
| Couldn’t turn on agent. Please try again. |
This error can mean several things:
|
Running an agent
When an agent has an issue with a run, an error is reported in the activity log. Here are some common errors you might see:
| Error message | Reason and resolution |
|---|---|
|
Workspace Studio is missing permissions |
Workspace Studio needs your permission to connect to other apps and services. If you see this error, try turning the agent on again. That should cause Workspace Studio to ask for your permission for any apps and services it’s blocked on. If you still see the error after that, your administrator may block access to this app. |
| The prompt, including content referenced with variables and links, exceeded Gemini limits. Consider editing your prompt, such as using fewer variables. |
You might see this for an AI step. The prompt must be less than ~144,000 characters (roughly 18,000 words), including linked content and content added with variables. This issue happens most often when the prompt includes a variable such as the body of an email message. If the message includes a long thread, or just a lot of text, the prompt might be too long. We’re working to make prompts more resilient to this issue. To decrease the frequency of this issue, consider limiting the number of variables in the prompt. |
| Couldn't start because "Google Workspace smart features" in your Gmail settings are turned off | Some agents require Google Workspace smart features to be turned on in your Gmail settings. Make sure that both Smart features and Google Workspace smart features are turned on. |
| Content couldn’t be shared with Gemini | Your Google Workspace administrator might prevent people in your organization from downloading or copying files. A side effect of this setting is that it prevents Gemini from accessing files, too. If this is blocking an important workflow for you, contact your administrator for help. |
Less common errors
“Couldn't get column names from row 1”In the Sheets steps, you can filter rows by column values. The names of the columns come from the first row. The first row must meet the following requirements:
- The column names must start in cell A1
- Each name must be one cell, not merged cells
- Each column name must be unique and can’t be empty
You might see "Selection not available" if you edit an agent where you selected a person, such as someone to send a message to.
First, check that the person is still available by going to https://contacts.google.com/ and looking up the person.
If that doesn't work, try selecting someone else. Sometimes when you make a copy of someone else’s agent, you might not be able to select the original person.
You might see “Couldn't run because your Google Workspace admin has blocked access to a service” if your Google Workspace admin blocked Workspace Studio access to Workspace apps.
To fix, your Google Workspace admin can follow the steps in Control which apps access Google Workspace data to allow access for the following services:
- Drive for Workspace Studio
- Gemini for Workspace Studio
- Gmail for Workspace Studio
- Google Calendar for Workspace Studio
- Google Chat for Workspace Studio
- Google Forms to Workspace Studio
- Sheets for Workspace Studio
FAQ
Expand all | Collapse all & go to top
Why can't I access Workspace Studio?- You must be on a computer and use a supported web browser. You can’t use Workspace Studio on mobile devices.
- If you can't access Workspace Studio, contact your admin.
For general feedback, in Workspace Studio, click Send feedback.
For feedback about Gemini’s responses, in the Activity page, find the response or issue. For successful runs, you can report if the response was helpful or not helpful and share your prompt for troubleshooting. For issues, you can submit feedback.
Join the Workspace Studio Discord channel, a dedicated space to connect, hold discussions, and network.
- Join the public Google Workspace server.
- On the left, find the #workspace-studio channel.
Here are a few things you can do on the server:
- Connect with others. Introduce yourself and get to know others on our dedicated channel.
- Share learnings. You can share your class learnings with others in the community, and get support from the network if you have questions or ideas.
- Stay up-to-date on the latest news. We’ll be sharing the latest news about Workspace Studio Alpha.
Workspace Studio has starters and steps for Gemini in Google Workspace, Gmail, Google Chat, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Google Tasks.
To avoid the situation where an agent starts itself or others in a continuous loop, starters are set to ignore messages sent by flows by default. For example, if you have an agent that starts when someone posts a message in a space and it posts to that same space, this setting prevents the agent from starting again based on that message.
However, in some cases you might want an agent to start based on messages that are sent by other agents. In that case, check the box so that the agent considers these messages, too.
When you use the Notify me in Chat step, the messages are sent through a Chat app that’s named after the agent, rather than a direct message. To find Chat apps, in Chat, scroll to the bottom of the left pane until you see the Apps section.
For example, if you have a “Meeting reminders” agent that sends you a message before your meetings, that message is posted in the “Meeting reminders” Chat app listed in the Apps section:
You can apply or remove your personal Gmail labels with an agent.
However, the When I get an email starter evaluates email messages before your personal Gmail labels are applied. For example, if you have a filter to mark messages sent to a group as read, an agent will run on the messages if they match the starting conditions, even if they're marked as read.
If you have an agent that starts with When I get an email, that agent runs when you get a new email that arrives in your inbox. It doesn’t start for emails that you automatically archive or move to trash.
Yes, you can have your agents take actions in popular third-party apps and services such as Asana, Mailchimp, Slack, and Salesforce, by adding integration steps. Learn more about integration steps
Yes, you can extend and customize Workspace Studio using Google Workspace add-ons. Just like add-ons for other services, you and other people in your organization can build and share custom steps so you can automate what you need most. Learn more about custom steps