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Hi Team,
I am working on the child flow “Send Notification” in Power Automate within our DEV environment.
While testing, the flow fails when called from the main flow, with the following error:
"ChildFlowUnsupportedForInvokerConnections: The workflow cannot be used as a child workflow because child workflows only support embedded connections."
From my investigation:
The child flow currently uses a “Manually trigger a flow” trigger.
It appears that connection references are not properly set to embedded connections.
I am unable to see or modify the run-only user / connection reference settings in the UI.
Could you please help me:
Verify the connection references used in this child flow.
Update or rebind them to use embedded connections, so the child flow can be safely called from the main flow.
This flow is part of a Solution, and we need it fixed in DEV before deployment to PROD
regards,
Hi Sasi, this error usually means the child flow is still using an invoker connection somewhere. For child flows, Power Automate only supports embedded connections via Connection References (Solution).
Try this in DEV:
1) Confirm it’s a real “child flow”
Open the flow inside Solutions
Trigger should be Manually trigger a flow (inside the solution)
That’s fine — the trigger isn’t the issue.
2) Check Connection References in the Solution
Go to Solutions → (your solution) → Connection references
Make sure you have connection references for every connector used in “Send Notification”
Example: Outlook / Teams / Dataverse / etc.
If one is missing: New → Connection reference, pick the connector + pick the connection, save.
3) Rebind the actions in the child flow to the Connection Reference
This is the step most people miss.
Open Send Notification → Edit
Click each action (especially Outlook/Teams/Dataverse steps)
Look for the Connection reference / Connection option on the action
Switch it from a direct user connection to the Connection Reference from the solution
You don’t want “user@domain.com”
You want “(Connection Reference) cr_XXX_DEV”
Even one action left on a direct connection will trigger the “unsupported for invoker connections” error.
4) Save, then toggle the flow
Save
Turn the child flow Off
Turn it On again
This forces the bindings to refresh.
5) Confirm the parent is calling it correctly
In the parent flow, it should be using Run a child flow (the built-in action)
Not calling it via HTTP or other workarounds.
About the “run-only user / connection reference settings” not showing: that’s normal when the flow is solution-aware. In this scenario, the fix is really making sure every connector action is using a Connection Reference (embedded) inside the solution.
If you still hit issues after rebinding, tell us which connectors are used in “Send Notification” and we can narrow down which step is still holding a non-embedded connection.
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