Test and troubleshoot rules

Test before enabling

Use the rule editor’s test tools to compare a rule with recent orders. A dry run reports matches without running the actions. Use a staging store or purpose-built test orders for rules that contact customers or external services.

Explain one order

Select a specific order to see the trigger and schedule gates, each condition, the actual order value, and whether it matched. This is the fastest way to find a country, status, product, or metadata value that differs from what the rule expects.

A rule did not run

Check these in order:

1. The rule and global automation are enabled.
2. The order entered the configured trigger status after the plugin was active.
3. The settling delay has elapsed.
4. The weekday and active date window allow the rule to run.
5. Every required condition still matches at execution time.
6. Action Scheduler is processing queued work.

A notification failed

Enable delivery logging and inspect WooCommerce → Status → Logs. Confirm the URL uses HTTPS, the destination accepts the request, and a firewall is not blocking outbound traffic. Background delivery retries temporary failures with backoff.

Command-line diagnosis

Developers with WP-CLI access can use wp osa preview for dry-run counts and wp osa explain <order_id> --rule=<rule_id> for a condition-by-condition trace.