PL-500 key terms

A robotic automation built in Power Automate for desktop that runs on a Windows machine and drives applications, files, and websites on that machine.

A workflow hosted in the Power Automate service that starts from a trigger such as a schedule, email, or button, and can call connectors or start desktop flows.

A desktop flow that runs inside a signed-in user's session, typically started by that person or by a cloud flow while they are present to handle exceptions.

A desktop flow that runs on a machine with nobody signed in, using stored credentials, so it can be scheduled overnight or scaled across many machines.

The set of attributes, such as element name, identifier, or on-screen position, that Power Automate uses to find a specific UI element when the flow runs.

A project-level store of captured UI elements and their selectors, shared by every action in a desktop flow so an update applies everywhere at once.

One step inside a desktop flow, such as launching an application, clicking a button, or reading text from a window.

A reusable named block of actions within a desktop flow that accepts input parameters and can return output values to the code that calls it.

A variable flagged with a direction so a desktop flow or subflow can receive a value from its caller or hand a result back when it finishes.

An action placed after a block that defines how failures inside that block are handled, for example to log the error and continue or to stop the flow.

A capture tool that observes a user working in applications and converts the observed clicks and keystrokes into equivalent desktop flow actions.

A technique that converts text visible in images or on screen into plain text, so a flow can read values that expose no accessible UI element.

A desktop flow variable type for secrets such as passwords; values are encrypted in the local vault and hidden from logs and the console.

A setting that repeats a failed action a specified number of times at a set interval before the flow reports the failure.

The Windows application where makers record, build, edit, debug, and run desktop flows on a local or remote machine.

Desktop flow actions that control a browser directly, such as navigating, clicking, filling forms, and extracting page data, using the browser extension or selectors.

A collection of machines registered with Power Automate that unattended jobs are distributed across, or that limits which machines attended users may target.

The ordered list of unattended desktop flow jobs waiting for a free machine in a machine group; jobs start in the order they were submitted.

A stored list of items to process in which each desktop flow run takes the next item and records its outcome, so long jobs can resume after a failure.

The log of each flow execution showing start time, duration, overall status, and per-action inputs and outputs, used for troubleshooting.

Admin rules that sort connectors into business, non-business, or blocked groups and prevent flows from combining connectors from different groups.

A Microsoft-managed Azure virtual machine obtained through Power Automate that runs unattended desktop flows, so the customer does not maintain the hardware.

A set of Power Platform components an organization installs to inventory environments, apps, and flows and to support governance and adoption reporting.

A container that packages flows, desktop flows, connection references, environment variables, and other components so they move between environments as one unit.

A solution imported in a locked state whose components cannot be edited in the target environment; it is installed and removed as a whole, usually for production.

A solution whose components stay editable after import, used in development or test environments where makers keep changing the automation.

An isolated Power Platform container holding flows, apps, data, and user roles, used to separate development, testing, and production work.

A named setting stored inside a solution whose value is supplied per environment at import or runtime, so the same flow works everywhere.

A solution component that holds a pointer to a connector connection, letting each environment supply its own credentials instead of the developer's.

A Power Platform feature that copies a solution from a development environment to test and production, optionally with pre-deployment checks and approvals.

The practices and tooling for versioning, testing, and moving automation assets through development, test, and production stages.

A packaged interface to an external service's API that provides ready-made triggers and actions, so flows can exchange data without writing code.

A connector you build from an OpenAPI definition or from scratch to expose your own web API with chosen actions, authentication, and policies.

The event or condition that starts a cloud flow, such as a new email arriving, a schedule firing, or another flow calling it.

A service installed in a private network that relays requests between cloud flows and local resources such as file shares, SQL Server, or legacy systems.

Microsoft's cloud data service for Power Platform, storing business records in tables that cloud flows, desktop flows, and apps can query and update.