Debugging Executions

Use this skill when debugging workflow execution failures or successful runs with wrong or empty values.

When the user reports it still fails

Re-run the failing path with executions(action="run") (or verify-built-workflow) and inspect the real result before responding. Do not restate that the workflow is "fixed", "verified", or "working", and do not attribute the reported failure to a test-harness artifact, stale state, or "it works in production" without a re-run against the failing path. Treat live signals as real: an execution error, partial coverage (nodesNotReached), an empty node, or a missing node is a real defect to investigate, not something to explain away. If you genuinely cannot re-run the failing path, say so plainly and name what is unconfirmed instead of repeating a success claim.

Draft versus live

A published workflow runs the version that was published, not the draft you edit. Your save creates a draft, and the draft is not live until somebody publishes it. So a fix to a live workflow changes nothing in production on its own.

Two consequences when the user reports a live workflow failing:

• Read the version each execution ran. executions(action="list", workflowId) returns workflowVersionId on every row, plus workflow.activeVersionId (the published version) and workflow.draftVersionId. Only a row whose workflowVersionId equals workflow.activeVersionId ran the published code. A run of a draft proves nothing about production. A workflow.draftVersionId different from workflow.activeVersionId means the latest changes, including any fix you just made, are not live.
• Name the version when you invite a retest. Say whether the user tests the draft or the published version. "Try it again" after a draft-only fix sends the user to the broken published version, and the fix looks like it failed.

Do not report a fix as live until the published version is the fixed one. Ask whether to publish it instead. After a publish, a new live run is what confirms the fix — an earlier execution ran the old version.

Testing event-triggered workflows

Use executions(action="run") with inputData matching the trigger's output shape — do not rebuild the workflow with a Manual Trigger. For trigger inputData shapes, read ${N8N_WORKSPACE_DIR}/knowledge-base/reference/trigger-input-data-shapes.md when a sandbox workspace is available.

Failed execution

executions(action="debug") already includes failedNode.resolvedParameters — start there. That bundle has parameters (raw, with expressions intact), resolved (substituted), failedExpressions (those that threw), and emptyResolutions (those that resolved to null/undefined/"" silently). The offending expression is usually visible without a follow-up call. Entries in either list tagged with reason: "unreconstructable-context" are NOT real bugs — they reference variables we don't reconstruct in replay ($vars, $secrets, $response, $request, $pageCount, $ai). The value existed at execution time; we just don't have it here.

Successful execution with wrong or empty value

When debug doesn't apply because nothing errored, call executions(action="get-resolved-node-parameters", executionId, nodeName) on the node whose output looks off — do this unprompted, don't ask the user for permission first. It's a cheap read-only inspection and the only reliable way to confirm whether an empty value came from an expression silently resolving to nullish. Check emptyResolutions first; most "this parameter is empty" cases are expressions resolving to null/undefined/"", not thrown errors.