WhatsApp Business Node: "Document" option missing in Header Parameters for approved templates

Questions
1

Hi everyone,

I’m facing a persistent issue with the WhatsApp Business node on n8n (self-hosted v1.120.4).

The Problem: I have several templates approved and active in the Meta Business Suite. These templates are configured with a Media Header (Document). However, inside the n8n WhatsApp node, when I select these templates and go to Header > Parameters > Type, the “Document” option does not appear in the dropdown. I only see Text, Image, Video, etc.

What I’ve already tried:

  • Refreshing the credentials to force a metadata sync.

  • Deleting and recreating the WhatsApp node from scratch.

  • Creating a brand new template in Meta with a different name (also approved as Document).

  • Using “Expression” mode to manually type “document” in the Type field (results in a #132001 error / Template not found).

In the Meta Panel, the templates are definitely confirmed as Media/Document. It seems like the n8n node is not fetching the updated schema or is failing to recognize the document header type.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Environment:

  • n8n version: 1.120.4

  • Database: SQLite (default)

  • Deployment: Docker / Self-hosted

  • Node: WhatsApp Business (Latest version)

2

Hi @Felipe_Lyra

This is a known limitation of the WhatsApp Business Cloud node, however, you can use HTTP request node as a workaround to call the API directly, This gives you full control over the template components payload.

you might put something in the body like:
{
“messaging_product”: “whatsapp”,
“to”: “RECIPIENT_NUMBER”,
“type”: “template”,
“template”: {
“name”: “your_template_name”,
“language”: { “code”: “en” },
“components”: [
{
“type”: “header”,
“parameters”: [
{
“type”: “document”,
“document”: {
“link”: “``https://example.com/your-file.pdf”``,
“filename”: “file.pdf”
...

3

Welcome to the n8n community @Felipe_Lyra

First, I’d update n8n. You’re on 1.120.4, while current stable is 2.15.0, so I’d retest on the latest stable before going deeper. More broadly, I’d treat the WhatsApp node as a convenience layer, not the source of truth for everything the Cloud API supports. Operationally, it helps to define template handling by category and keep a small internal compatibility matrix per n8n version.

4

Amazing! Worked perfectly. Much Thanks!