Observability: the secret to fixing Flow and Apex errors proactively

Flow and Apex sit at the heart of many business-critical processes in Salesforce. But when they fail, it’s difficult for teams to catch and triage errors. Most issues are flagged by end users, leaving development teams on the back foot. So how can Salesforce teams proactively detect and resolve errors before they start impacting users?

Salesforce teams have increasingly adopted tools and processes for the DevOps lifecycle, such as version control and CI/CD. But monitoring what happens after deployment remains one of the biggest blind spots, and there’s been low adoption of observability tooling in the ecosystem.

Why are Flow and Apex errors difficult to manage?

When Flows or Apex throw errors, you’re often in the dark. You might get an email alert from Salesforce, but these are far from perfect:

• Emails go to whoever last modified the Flow, or into shared inboxes that are easy to overlook.
• Apex error emails often lack critical details like record IDs or affected users.
• You can’t see trends and track recurring issues or sudden spikes.
• You can’t tell which errors are critical and which are just noise.
• Working out which deployment caused the failure is completely manual.
  

Without visibility into these errors, many teams operate in firefighting mode — reacting only after users escalate issues. Others waste hours sifting through error emails and logs, trying to pinpoint the root cause.

In fact, 74% of the teams that don’t have observability tools most often learn about issues from end users, according to the 2025 State of Salesforce DevOps Report. It’s a widespread problem that leaves teams reactive instead of strategic.

The secret: observability tooling

The key to breaking this cycle is observability; tooling that gives teams real-time visibility into system behaviours, like Flow and Apex errors, as they happen. With observability in place, Salesforce teams can:

• Catch errors early, before users notice.
• See exactly which Flows or Apex classes are failing.
• Correlate issues with recent deployments.
• Identify patterns and recurring problem areas.
• Prioritize fixes based on user and business impact.
• Back up decisions with clear data.
  

Observability transforms error monitoring from a reactive scramble into a proactive part of managing your Salesforce org. This Salesforce Observability whitepaper takes a closer look at how this fits into modern DevOps workflows.

Where observability fits in the Salesforce DevOps lifecycle

Observability is an essential part of the Salesforce DevOps lifecycle. Once changes are live, observability shows how they’re actually working in the org and whether they’re behaving as expected or not. Observability surfaces problems early and gives teams the context they need to respond quickly and keep things operating smoothly.

Insights from observability should also feed directly into planning and development, helping teams make better decisions about how to build. It closes the loop in the DevOps lifecycle, turning a release process into a continuous, informed cycle of improvement.

How teams are using observability to get ahead of Flow and Apex errors

There are a few ways to approach observability in Salesforce; some offer quick wins, others require more setup, and some give you full visibility straight out of the box.

• Email inbox rules: As a first step, many teams will direct error alert emails into a shared inbox or use filters or rules to sort them. However it can still be difficult to spot patterns or work out which issues matter most as error volumes grow.
• Custom logging systems: Some teams build their own logging systems into Flows or Apex, storing error details in custom objects. This gives more control than emails, but it takes time to build and maintain and can quickly eat into your data storage limits. 
• Event Monitoring: Salesforce Event Log Files track activity across your org and can capture some Flow and Apex errors, but you’ll need external tools to turn these logs into actionable insights.
• Third-party logging frameworks: Third-party tools like Nebula Logger or Pharos provide structured logging with less manual setup.. Although you’ll still need to build out reporting and alerting.
• Dedicated observability platforms: Purpose-built solutions like Gearset’s Flow and Apex Error Monitoring show live, recurring, and historic errors in one dashboard. Custom alerts, advanced filtering, and detailed error context give teams full visibility — with no need to build or maintain their own tooling.

The outcome: fewer surprises, faster fixes

With observability in place, Salesforce teams can spot issues early, dig into problems with full context, fix the root cause faster, and focus on the work that matters most, all while getting a clearer view of system health and stability.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated. You can layer observability into your workflow as you go, beginning with one high-impact shift: catching Flow and Apex errors before users even notice.