Power Automate is a powerful tool, but without a bit of discipline, flows quickly become a mess. Here are 5 things I always do.
1. Name every step
Default names like Apply to each 2 are useless. Always rename every action to something meaningful — like Get items from SharePoint. It saves you and your colleagues hours of debugging.
2. Use Compose for debugging
The Compose action is your best friend when troubleshooting. Drop an expression or variable into it and see exactly what the flow is receiving.
// Example: Display the entire trigger body
@{triggerBody()}3. Handle errors with Configure run after
Set up failure branches using Configure run after. A flow should never fail silently — send yourself a notification or log the error to a SharePoint list.
4. Don't overuse Variables — use Compose
Variables in Power Automate are sequential and can't be used in parallel branches. If you're just passing a value without changing it, use Compose instead — it's faster and cleaner.
5. Document with descriptions and notes
Every flow has a Description field — fill it in. In 6 months you won't remember why you built it that way. Two sentences is enough.
A good flow isn't the shortest one, but the one a junior can understand a year later.