By the way, in default settings, I want to set general “Error Workflow”.
Could I set default “Error Workflow” by any environment variable?
I can’t see an option here: Environment Variables | Docs to set an error workflow from the environment variables… I suspect this could be because it wouldn’t exist on a new install so could cause all sorts of problems.
I think an option for default node for error is nessesary.
Error notification is very important, but I usually forgot to set it for new workflow.
1 Like
Yeah a global setting somewhere would be handy I am just not sure an env var is the way to handle it.
Hey @cmdntd987,
Thank you for creating the Feature Request. I can see how this can be helpful. I don’t think there is an env available.
Do upvote the request!
1 Like
Hope this will be merged 
Hello,
In my case it would be a default error workflow per account, as one account represents an organization unit 
Hello, reviving this topic to know if this feature can be developed still.
Tried updating all my workflows using the n8n node but sadly it doesn’t give the Error Workflows options =(
This would be a helpful feature for us as well, we typically turn on the error workflow for all workflows by default
1 Like
Any updates on this at all?
Hey @Josh_Sorenson,
Nothing that I have seen in planning meetings recently but I still think this would be a good idea for the future.
I can’t believe this hasn’t been fixed yet. Regardless, here’s a workaround:
Do you consistently forget to set a Default Error Workflow when creating new workflows? Then this helper workflow is for you!
When activated, this helper workflow will:
- Scan ALL other workflows every 4 hours
- Make sure ALL workflows have a default error workflow set (based on what Workflow ID you provide)
- This helper will SKIP OVER any workflows that have the
default_error:falsetag set (make sure your default error workflow has thedefault_error:falsetag set, so that you don’t end up with recursive loops during errors)
Setup Nodes:
- Once imported, edit the
Set Varsnode with yourdefault_error_workflow_idvalue. - If you want to change the
default_error:falsetag to some other tag name, you can do so here as well. - You need to update the
Set Default Error Workflownode with your PostgreSQL credentials to access then8ndatabase.
This workflow has been published here, also:
Hi!
I am iterating your workflow @dkindlund in order to modify the error workflow using the n8n API instead of directly accessing the database, here would be it:
However, it throws an error while updating the workflow: request/body/settings must NOT have additional properties.
Complete error details
{
"errorMessage": "Bad request - please check your parameters [item 0]",
"errorDescription": "request/body/settings must NOT have additional properties",
"errorDetails": {
"rawErrorMessage": [
"Request failed with status code 400"
],
"httpCode": "400",
"errorData": {
"message": "request/body/settings must NOT have additional properties"
}
},
"n8nDetails": {
"nodeName": "Update workflow",
"nodeType": "n8n-nodes-base.n8n",
"nodeVersion": 1,
"resource": "workflow",
"operation": "update",
"itemIndex": 0,
"runIndex": 0,
"time": "24/05/2024, 08:30:02",
"n8nVersion": "1.40.0 (Self Hosted)",
"binaryDataMode": "default",
"stackTrace": [
"NodeApiError: Bad request - please check your parameters",
" at Object.httpRequestWithAuthentication (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-core/dist/NodeExecuteFunctions.js:1164:15)",
" at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)",
" at Object.httpRequestWithAuthentication (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-core/dist/NodeExecuteFunctions.js:1984:20)",
" at RoutingNode.rawRoutingRequest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-workflow/dist/RoutingNode.js:285:29)",
" at RoutingNode.makeRoutingRequest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-workflow/dist/RoutingNode.js:371:28)",
" at RoutingNode.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-workflow/dist/RoutingNode.js:104:32)",
" at Workflow.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-workflow/dist/Workflow.js:778:23)",
" at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-core/dist/WorkflowExecute.js:660:53",
" at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-core/dist/WorkflowExecute.js:1062:20"
]
}
}
Have you faced the same problem (and that was the reason to directly modify the workflow in the database)?
I have searched a little bit about the error but I still not get why it is not working.
There is another related bug report, but in that case updating the executionOrder setting instead of the errorWorkflow.
The related error required a fix that got released with n8n 1.37.0, and if we take a look to the fix implementation, it references the schema/workflowSettings.yml which already included the errorWorkflow property.
However, it is also true that there are no errorWorkflow being specified in the n8n API workflow update test case, so I don’t really think that having the errorWorkflow in the workflowSettings schema guarantees that it is supported while updating workflows, or it is just that I am doing something wrong
Anyone could confirm if I am missing anything or it is an actual bug? 
Thanks! 
Edit: I have found this other post from @Jon stating that the errorWorkflow option is already supported for WorkflowSettings in the API, so I guess I am missing something here :S
Hey @JavierCane , yeah, I tried using the official n8n APIs to get it to work, but I couldn’t for similar reasons. That’s why I just wrote directly to the underlying DB instead.
Maybe @Jon can help clarify?
Hi @dkindlund and @JavierCane
It looks like this is a highly requested feature, I was not able to use the SQL node so I figured out how to use the API node for N8N
Use the workflow that @dkindlund made and replace the SQL node with another N8N API Node.
Steps to set it up:
Select your N8N account
resource “Workflow”
Operation “update”
Workflow (by ID) map it to {{ $json.id }}
Workflow Object:
{
“name”: “{{ $json.name }}”,
“nodes”: {{ JSON.stringify($json.nodes) }},
“connections”: {{ JSON.stringify($json.connections) }},
“settings”: {
“errorWorkflow”: “BqrrQ816cfbzM4YQ”,
“executionOrder”: “v1”
}
}
Hope that helps
@Tier1 I’ve come to this conclusion on my own too. The only drawback is that if you do have any additional workflow settings (like a timeout), it’ll get wiped clean. While not perfect, I think this is a further step in the evolution:
{
“name”: “{{ $json.name }}”,
“nodes”: {{ JSON.stringify($json.nodes) }},
“connections”: {{ JSON.stringify($json.connections) }},
“settings”: {{ JSON.stringify(
(({ callerPolicy, …rest}) => rest)($json.settings)
)}}
}
What that anonymous function does in the settings part is removes unsupported settings. Unfortunately, there’s no way to “PATCH” a workflow via API currently (i.e. overwrite a specific part), so this will have do for now.
@Jon I wonder if we could get a PATCH HTTP verb that handles a differential update rather than an overall replacement of the workflow object? And a quick reminder that all this workaround is because there’s no default Error Workflow for new workflows. I still think the PATCH endpoint would be a good idea, but many in this thread could use the default Error Workflow instead for this use case.
1 Like
I created an error handler workflow that’ll attach itself to any workflows that don’t have a handler yet. It already saved me a couple of times from issues that I might not have noticed otherwise!
3 Likes
Hello,
I get the same error, if I try to backup this worklow [Learn n8n Expressions with an Interactive Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners](https://n8n.io/workflows/5271-learn-n8n-expressions-with-an-interactive-step-by-step-tutorial-for-beginners/) using my [n8n API backup process](https://n8n.io/workflows/6947-backup-n8n-workflows-with-versioning-and-notion-tracking/)
Bad request - please check your parameters
request/body/nodes/0 must NOT have additional properties
Error code 400
Full message
Request failed with status code 400
Error data
{ “message”: “request/body/nodes/0 must NOT have additional properties” }
Not sure to understand what’s wrong, …
