Understanding scenarios

Scenarios answer what-if questions

Think of each scenario as a parallel version of your model—a sandbox where you can experiment with different assumptions, plans, and formulas. If you want to see the impact of doubling your marketing budget on your metrics—or compare different launch timelines—scenarios let you do that.

Changes made in a scenario stay local until merged, so your team can safely propose updates (independently), refine decisions, and see how your model responds. Once everyone’s aligned, you can merge your new scenario into the main model.

Main vs. draft scenarios

Your main scenario is your live, official model. To protect it from accidental changes, Runway automatically creates a draft scenario anytime you make data edits.

Once in draft, all your edits remain local—they won’t affect main or any other scenario unless you merge them.

What counts as a data edit?

The specific actions—when performed in a main scenario—automatically move you into a draft scenario.

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When performed in a non-main scenario, the impact of these changes remains local until an Admin merges them into main.

Drivers:

Creating or deleting drivers

Editing forecast, actual, or rollup formulas

Modifying values (actual or forecast)

Moving drivers between models or driver groups

Adding/removing drivers from blocks

Marking or unmarking a driver as KPI

Changing formatting (name, color, precision, type)

Models or databases:

Creating or deleting models / databases

Adding / removing database rows

Editing formulas or modifying any database cell

Changing database schema (data sources, dimensions, segmentation)

How to tell you’re in a draft scenario

Look for the DRAFT label in the scenario name.

Working with scenarios

Managing a draft scenario

When working in a draft scenario, you’ll see these options (depending on your permission level):

Save draft as creates a new standalone scenario for your edits.

Compare & merge merges your edits into the main scenario. (Admins only.)

Discard draft Removes all changes made in the drafts, and returns to main.

Creating a new scenario

To create a fresh scenario:

Click + New scenario in the scenarios list (top left).

Give it a name, and choose an icon/emoji.

The new scenario will be an exact copy of your main scenario. From there, you can start making edits that will only affect this scenario.

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Alternatively, you can save a draft scenario as a new scenario using the Save draft as option.

Merging scenarios

How to merge a scenario into main

Only Admins can merge scenarios. To do so:

Navigate to the scenario you want to merge (from the scenarios list).

Click Compare and merge... (top left). This will let you compare it against main scenario.

Review the changes, and confirm the merge.

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Shortcut: Use Cmd / Ctrl + Shift + M to open the Compare and merge modal instantly.

If you don’t have Admin access, you can:

Ask an Admin to merge your scenario for you.

Share the scenario link by navigating to it from the scenarios list, and clicking Copy link.

How merging affects other scenarios

Scenarios work by layering edits on top of the main scenario.

For example:

Let’s say Bob and Alice both edit Driver A in separate draft scenarios.

At this point, both Bob and Alice see their own versions of Driver A in their separate draft scenarios.

If Bob merges first, Alice still sees her own version of Driver A in her draft scenario.

When Alice later merges, her changes overwrite Bob’s in the main scenario—which means Driver A in the main scenario will be updated to reflect Alice's version.

This ensures that every scenario operates independently—until its changes are merged.

Let’s look at another example:

Bob creates a draft scenario where he modifies Driver B.

Alice creates a draft scenario where she modifies Driver A.

Alice's version of Driver B is the same as the main scenario, because Bob’s edit isn’t merged into the main scenario they both share.

But when Bob merges his changes:

Alice sees the updated Driver B (based on Bob's merge action).

Alice still sees her own version of Driver A (based on her draft scenario).

Preventing main scenario updates from affecting your scenario

By default, all scenarios inherit updates from main unless they conflict with existing edits in that scenario.

To prevent this, click the Settings icon next to a scenario name, then set Pull updates from Main to Disabled. After this, changes merged into main—including integration syncs—won't affect this scenario.

If you decide to re-enable this setting for the scenario, you can switch it back to Automatic. Keep in mind that doing so will instantly pull in any non-conflicting changes from Main—both existing and future changes. Depending on how different your scenario is from Main, it may look different after switching back to Automatic.

Scenario settings

In the scenarios list, click the Settings icon next to a scenario name to adjust these options:

Renaming & changing icon – Update the scenario name, or emoji/icon.

Pull updates from Main – Allow or block automatic updates from main scenario. This includes integration sync changes.

Allow merging – Allow or block merging into main.

Editing – Prevent anyone from making edits. (By default, any user with edit access to a page, model, or database can make edits across all scenarios they can view.)

Who can view – By default, scenarios are visible only to Admins and the scenario creator. You can use this option to control who can access the scenario (only Admins, or all Managers and Members). Guests need to be given access to a scenario at either the model or page level.

Copy link – Share any scenario with your team by sharing its link.

Delete – Remove any scenario you no longer need.

Comparing scenarios

Tabular comparison in pages & models

You can compare values across multiple scenarios in a table format:

Open a model or create a Driver table in any page.

Add the drivers you want to compare across different scenarios.

Click Customize (top right) → Select Compare → Choose the scenarios you want to compare.

The default view shows time series values from each scenario. You can add Variance and Variance % from the same menu.

Adjust table layout to show scenarios as rows or columns.

By default, Variance and Variance % appear in green when the current scenario's value is higher than the comparison scenario, and in red when it's lower. To reverse these colors, set your Driver's goal to be below 0.

Graphical comparison in pages

You can also compare drivers across scenarios using line or column charts:

Create a Driver chart in any page.

Add the drivers you want to compare across different scenarios.

Click the Compare icon (top right) → Choose the scenarios you want to compare.

FAQ

Can I re-enable Pull updates from Main after disabling it?

Yes! However, when you switch back to Automatic, it will immediately pull in both existing and upcoming changes from Main that don't conflict with your scenario. Your scenario may look quite different after switching back to Automatic, depending on how much it differs from Main.

How do I duplicate a scenario?

Scenario duplication isn’t currently supported, but it’s on our radar. If this is important to you, please let us know—your feedback helps us prioritize future updates.