PL-500 cheat sheet

Attended desktop flows require a signed-in user session plus a Power Automate Premium per-user license; the user can pause or take over the run.

Unattended desktop flows run with no signed-in user on a registered machine and require a Power Automate Process license plus stored Windows credentials.

A machine can be registered to only one machine group, and unattended runs are load-balanced across the machines in that group.

Use a work queue when each record must be processed exactly once with tracked status, retry count, and deadline; use a plain list when duplicates and ordering do not matter.

Prefer a connector or API action over UI automation whenever a supported connector exists; UI automation is the fallback for systems without an API.

Any flow that uses a premium connector (Dataverse, HTTP with Azure AD, SQL Server, custom connector) requires premium licensing for the maker and each run owner.

Separate development, test, and production environments; author in unmanaged solutions in development and promote managed solutions downstream.

Trigger options for a desktop flow: a cloud flow (scheduled, automated, or instant), the Power Automate console for attended runs, or the Run desktop flow action from another desktop flow.

Wrap failure-prone action groups in an On block error action; the options are go to label, continue flow run, or retry with a fixed retry count and interval.

Breakpoints and Run from here execute actions step by step, and Display message writes values to the console for inspection during debugging.

UI elements live in the UI elements pane; editing a selector there updates every action that references that element.

Recursion is not supported in Power Automate for desktop; use loops or repeated Run subflow calls instead.

Mark variables as input or output in the variables pane so they can exchange data with a cloud flow through the Run desktop flow action.

In the cloud flow's Run desktop flow action, wait for completion must be enabled to consume output variables, and the timeout must cover the longest expected run.

Excel workflow actions are Launch Excel, Read from Excel worksheet, Write to Excel worksheet, and Close Excel; a cloud flow cannot read a workbook still open on the machine.

Use wildcards and stable attributes such as window title, element ID, or class in selectors to keep UI automation resilient across sessions.

Connection references must be bound to a real connection in each target environment after import; an unbound reference prevents the flow from being turned on.

Environment variables carry a default value and a per-environment current value; current values are set during import or edited afterward in the target environment.

DLP policies classify connectors as Business, Non-business, or Blocked; a single flow cannot combine business and non-business connectors.

Desktop flow run history is stored in Dataverse and surfaced in the Power Automate portal desktop flow activity views with status, duration, and error message.

Sharing a desktop flow with run-only permission lets a user execute it without viewing or editing the individual actions.

Managed solutions are read-only in the target environment; uninstalling one removes its components, while unmanaged customizations remain in the default layer.

The CoE Starter Kit supplies inventory, compliance, and usage reporting across environments but is not a licensing requirement.

Environment and tenant metrics are available in the Power Platform admin center, and audit records flow to Microsoft Purview when auditing is enabled.

Run Solution Checker before export; it flags hard-coded values, deprecated connectors, and missing dependencies in the report.

Standard import options are Overwrite unmanaged customizations and Publish all customizations; both are typically enabled when promoting to a downstream environment.

Managed solutions install as layers; unmanaged customizations sit in the default layer and take precedence over managed layers.

Power Platform deployment pipelines use preconfigured stages such as Dev to Test to Prod and require a host environment with Dataverse.

Use Stage for upgrade when the new version removes components that must be deleted from the target during the upgrade.

A solution import fails when a required component or dependency is absent in the target; add the dependency to the solution before exporting.

Desktop flows must be added to the solution as components so they travel with it, and the target machine needs a compatible Power Automate for desktop version.

Call REST or SOAP endpoints from a desktop flow with the Invoke web service action, and parse the JSON or XML response to extract fields.

Custom connectors are generated from an OpenAPI definition or a Postman collection; supported authentication includes API key, Basic, OAuth 2.0, and Azure AD.

An on-premises data gateway is required for cloud flows to reach on-premises SQL Server, file shares, and SharePoint farms.

Send an HTTP request to SharePoint performs SharePoint REST calls not covered by standard actions and is not a premium connector.

The Dataverse List rows action uses OData parameters: filter, select, expand, orderby, and top for paging.

Azure Service Bus and Event Hubs connectors decouple producers from consumers for asynchronous integration scenarios.

Cloud flows can be invoked from Power Apps, Copilot Studio, and Logic Apps through the flow's HTTP trigger URL or the Power Apps trigger.