I noticed that with n8n when using fields from the previous node it defaults to something like:
{{ $json.output.response_message }} however, if you end up changing your workflow and adding a node in-between it breaks the mapping and you need to relink with the full name ie:
I was wondering if there is a way to always use the longer variable name because I keep changing my workflow and then have to relink all the variable and its quite tedious and can lead to stupid mistakes.
There is no official setting to change this behaviour and yes, as convenient as it can be at times, it is also annoying when you continuously build onto your workflows.
As a rule I ALWAYS replace the $json and $input with the named references to avoid this issue, unless off course I have two different paths coming into a single node where $json makes sense to use. This saves me a lot of time reworking mappings and debugging down the line and doesnt take much time to do the first time around