Approval workflow stuck at manager level in cloud instance, notifications not sending

Our multi-level approval workflow is consistently halting at the manager approval stage in our Pega Cloud 8.6 instance. The workflow progresses fine from employee submission through supervisor approval, but when it reaches the manager level, it gets stuck in “Pending-Approval” status and no email notifications are being sent.

I’ve verified the assignment routing is correct in the workflow rule:


ApprovalLevel: Manager
Routing: ToWorkbasket(ManagerApprovals)
Notification: EmailApprovalRequest
Escalation: 48hours

The notification service shows as “Active” in the system settings, and our email connector passed the connection test. However, I noticed in the multi-tenant configuration that some permission settings look different than our on-premise instance. Could this be related to cloud-specific notification service configuration or email connector setup issues?

I’ve debugged this exact issue before. The problem is usually in the notification service configuration for multi-tenant cloud environments. Each tenant needs explicit permissions for the notification service, and the email connector needs to be enabled at both the tenant level and the application level. Check Records > SysAdmin > Email Account and make sure the “Enable for Notifications” checkbox is selected and that the tenant operator has the appropriate access group permissions.

I’ll walk you through the complete solution for this multi-tenant cloud workflow notification issue:

1. Notification Service Configuration In Pega Cloud multi-tenant environments, the notification service requires explicit configuration at multiple levels. Navigate to Configure > System > Settings > Notifications and verify:

  • Notification service is enabled for your tenant
  • Email listener is running (check System > Operations > Listeners)
  • Batch notification processing is configured with appropriate intervals

2. Email Connector Setup The key issue here is likely the email account configuration. In cloud instances, update your email account rule:


Email Account: ManagerApprovals_Email
SMTP Server: smtp.pegacloud.io
Port: 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL)
Authentication: OAuth2 or SMTP Auth
Enable for Notifications: CHECKED

Critically, ensure you’re using Pega Cloud’s approved SMTP relay service, not a direct external SMTP connection. External SMTP is often blocked by cloud security policies.

3. Multi-Tenant Permissions This is where most cloud migrations fail. Each tenant operator needs specific permissions:

  • Access group must include PegaRULES:Notifications privilege
  • Operator must have “Send Correspondence” permission in their access role
  • The application rule must explicitly allow email sending for the tenant

Verify in Records > SysAdmin > Access Group that ManagerApprovals workbasket members have these permissions.

4. Workflow Rule Debugging Your workflow configuration looks correct, but let’s verify the notification attachment:


// Check in workflow shape properties:
1. Assignment shape > Notifications tab
2. Verify correspondence rule: EmailApprovalRequest
3. Ensure "When: Routed" event is selected
4. Confirm recipient resolution uses .Assignee property
5. Test correspondence rule independently

Run the correspondence rule with sample data to isolate whether the issue is in the workflow routing or the email sending mechanism.

Additional Troubleshooting Steps:

  • Check System > Operations > Email Processing to see if emails are queued but failing to send
  • Review Tracer for the notification activity execution - look for security exceptions or permission denials
  • Verify that the manager operators have valid email addresses in their operator records
  • Test with a simple notification (no workflow) to confirm basic email functionality

Common Cloud-Specific Gotcha: In multi-tenant Pega Cloud, the notification service sometimes requires a restart after permission changes. Contact Pega Cloud support to restart the notification service for your tenant if configuration changes don’t take effect immediately.

After applying these fixes, test the workflow end-to-end with tracer enabled to confirm notifications are being generated and sent successfully at the manager approval stage.

First thing to check - are the manager-level approvers actually getting added to the ManagerApprovals workbasket? Go to Designer Studio > Organization > Workbasket and verify the membership. In cloud multi-tenant setups, workbasket assignments sometimes don’t migrate correctly from on-premise configurations.

Check your email account rule’s “Correspondence Server” setting. In Pega Cloud, you need to use the cloud-approved SMTP relay service, not a direct SMTP connection. Also verify that your correspondence rule is using the correct email account - sometimes workflows reference an email account that exists in dev but isn’t properly configured in production cloud instances.