Hi,
I believe I’ve run into a bug (or at least very unintuitive behavior) in the IF node when using expressions, and I’d like to check whether this is expected or not.
Context / goal
I’m using Split in Batches and want to wait only between batches, i.e.:
-
batch #1 → no wait
-
batch #2+ → wait (rate-limit OCR API)
The condition is based on:
$("Split in Batches").context["currentRunIndex"]
which is 0 for the first batch, 1, 2, … for subsequent batches.
What I tried
1. String comparison in IF node
IF node configuration:
-
Condition type: String
-
Value 1 (Expression):
{{ String($("Split in Batches").context["currentRunIndex"] ?? "0").trim() }}
-
Operation:
is not equal -
Value 2:
"0"(string, not number) -
Convert types where required: OFF
2. Debug confirms expression is correct
Using a Set node right before the IF, I verified:
-
currentRunIndex=0 -
typeof currentRunIndex=number -
String(...).trim()="0" -
String(...).trim() !== "0"=false -
Expression preview in IF node shows Result: false
So logically, the IF should go to the False branch on the first batch.
What actually happens
Despite all of the above:
-
The IF node routes items to the True branch
-
The downstream Wait node executes on the first batch
-
This happens consistently
I also tried:
-
Boolean conditions (
is true/is false) -
Explicit boolean expressions
-
Number comparisons
-
Turning Convert types where required ON and OFF
In multiple cases:
-
The expression preview shows the correct result
-
But runtime routing still goes to the True branch
This behavior looks very similar to the issue described here:
https://community.n8n.io/t/if-node-expression-returns-false-but-still-goes-to-true-branch/129452/2