Friday Fact: Renaming actions in Logic Apps doesn’t always update every reference

When you rename an action in Logic Apps (Consumption or Standard), the designer updates runAfter and most direct references. However, references inside expressions (e.g., in concat(), formatDateTime(), headers, connector parameters, or nested expressions), sometimes, can keep the old action name, and you only notice when you try to save your workflow

Reproduce in ~30 seconds

1. Create an action named Get Order It can be a composed action.
2. In another action, use an expression like: concat('ID: ', actions('Get_Order')?['body'])
3. Rename the action Get Order → Get Order ID.
4. The designer updates many references… but not always this expression.

However, I must say that Microsoft is improving this experience, as now many times all the references are successfully updated.

Safe rename tip

If you want to make sure that you will fix all the references while doing the rename of the actions, then instead of renaming from the Logic App design, access to Logic App code view and from there do a find and replace:

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Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira