Short answer: no — not through a supported in-process runtime API. In Prefect 3.x, a flow run’s name is intended to be set once, right before the run enters

Running

. After that, there isn’t a built-in

prefect

runtime helper like “rename this flow run now” that avoids talking to the API. Supported way to set the name Use

flow_run_name

on the

@flow

decorator:

python
from prefect import flow

@flow(flow_run_name="customer-{customer_id}")
def my_flow(customer_id: str):
    ...

or with a callable:

python
from prefect import flow
from datetime import datetime

def make_name():
    return f"run-{datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y%m%d-%H%M%S')}"

@flow(flow_run_name=make_name)
def my_flow():
    ...

A couple caveats: - String templates can use flow parameters - The name is applied near the start of execution, before

Running

- There’s no supported “change it later during execution” API except updating the run through the client/server API If you do want to rename mid-run, that effectively means an API update, e.g. via the Prefect client (

update_flow_run

/

set_flow_run_name

), which still results in a PATCH to the server. So if your requirement is specifically without an API PATCH call: I don’t think Prefect supports that. Relevant source/docs: - Flow run naming docs: Flow run names -

@flow

API reference: prefect.flows - Prefect source showing runtime name application in the flow engine: flow_engine.py If you want, I can also suggest a few patterns to simulate this without renaming the run itself, like: - logging a changing “display name” - storing progress metadata elsewhere - encoding dynamic context into artifacts or task run names