Manually Triggering a Paused DAG

[Kimmy95]

Is it possible to manually trigger and run a DAG without enabling/unpausing it?
Is there any config to implement that?

Airflow version: 3.1.3

[raphaelauv]

no

a hack would be to have a "copy paste" of the dag , maybe without scheduling for this manual triggering

for i in ["","manual"]:
    schedule = "* * * * *" if i == "" else None
    dag_id = "super_dag" if i == "" else "super_dag_"+i 
    With Dag(schedule=schedule,dag_id=dag_id,...)

[kaminagakur4]

@raphaelauv is right that the scheduler will not touch a paused DAG, and right that no config changes it. Those filters are hardcoded with no conf lookup: in 3.1.3, dagrun.py:618 has DagModel.is_paused == false() and scheduler_job_runner.py:400 has ~DM.is_paused. But there is one path that runs outside the scheduler entirely:

airflow dags test <dag_id>

I tested this on 3.1.3. With is_paused = True and no scheduler process running at all, both tasks executed, the DagRun finished success, and airflow dags list still showed is_paused: True afterwards. DAG.test() creates the run and executes the tasks inside the CLI process, and there is no is_paused check anywhere in that path.

Two caveats before you lean on it. This is not a documented guarantee. The command is supported as a debugging tool, and the 3.1.3 debug docs do not mention paused DAGs at all, so treat running-while-paused as behavior that could change. It also needs a shell where the dags folder and the metadata DB config both live, so on a managed service like MWAA or Composer the subcommand may not be exposed to you.

Two other things worth knowing either way. airflow dags trigger on a paused DAG is not a no-op: it creates the run, the run sits in queued, and it starts the moment you unpause. And backfill does not get around the pause in Airflow 3. It has been scheduler driven since AIP-78, so it goes through the same query above. That is a change from 2.x.

If the reason for pausing is only to stop it running on a schedule, then pause is the wrong lever. schedule=None on an unpaused DAG gives you manual-only triggering without keeping a duplicate DAG around.

One last note if you use the UI: when a DAG is paused the trigger dialog shows "Unpause on trigger" and that box is checked by default, so triggering from the UI unpauses unless you uncheck it.