Manual Executions
A manual Execution lets you run an action against one or more Targets immediately, without waiting for a Schedule. Use it to test your setup, handle ad-hoc needs, or respond to unexpected situations.
When to use manual Executions
| Scenario | Example |
|---|---|
| Testing a new Target | Run a Stop action manually to verify the right resources are matched before creating a Schedule |
| Ad-hoc shutdown | Shut down dev environments before a holiday without modifying your regular Schedule |
| Emergency response | Scale down resources immediately in response to a cost anomaly |
| Weekend work | Start resources that are normally off on weekends for a one-time work session |
Running from the Dashboard
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Navigate to Run Now or click the Run Now button on the Targets page
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Fill in the form:
Field Description Targets Select one or more Targets (multi-select) Action Depends on the service type — Stop/Start, Scale Up/Down, Enable/Disable, Create/Delete Slack channel (optional) Where to post results -
Click Run to start the Execution
[SCREENSHOT: run-now-form.png -- Run Now form with Target selection and action picker]
If Slack is not connected, the channel field will not appear. Results are always visible on the Executions page.
Running from Slack
Use the /frugally run slash command to trigger a manual Execution directly from Slack:
/frugally run <target-name> <action>
Examples
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/frugally run "Dev EC2 eu-west-1" stop | Stops all resources in the "Dev EC2 eu-west-1" Target |
/frugally run "Staging RDS" start | Starts all resources in the "Staging RDS" Target |
/frugally run "Dev ECS" scale-down | Scales down all ECS services in the "Dev ECS" Target |
Results are posted to the channel where you ran the command.
Use double quotes around Target names that contain spaces.
Viewing results
After triggering a manual Execution, you can track its progress in two places:
- Executions page — Full detail with per-resource results
- Slack — Summary posted to the selected channel (if configured)
Manual Executions follow the same lifecycle stages as scheduled Executions.
Manual Executions and credits
Manual Executions consume credits just like scheduled Executions. Dry runs do not consume credits and are a good way to validate before running a real Execution.