Error workflow on n8n 2.43.7: it only runs if it is published (the node docs say otherwise)

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Disclosure first: this account is filochiaro, and we publish a paid PDF guide of n8n recipes in Italian. The useful part is below and needs no guide.

We set up a global error workflow and hit two things.

  1. The workflow starts with an Error Trigger. In every workflow you want to watch, you pick it in Settings > Error Workflow. One error workflow can serve all of them.
  2. On n8n 2.43.7 the error workflow runs only if it is published. The Error Trigger docs page still says it does not need to be. In the code, an unpublished error workflow “is not active and cannot be executed” (packages/cli/src/workflows/workflow-execution.service.ts in the n8n repo, tag n8n@2.43.7).

Two more things to check:

  • A manual test run does not fire it. It only runs for failed automatic executions.
  • If the error happens in the trigger of the watched workflow, the details arrive under trigger, not execution.

Docs: Error Trigger | Nodes | n8n Docs

This is recipe 6 of «Ricette di automazione per n8n, Vol. 1» (Italian, 14 pages, six recipes, steps run on n8n 2.43.7 self-hosted). There is a free sample on the page: Guide. filochiaro