Bug Description

🐛 Bug: Chat Trigger Node calls webhook-test endpoint after upgrade to 2.18.5, breaking GUI testing with OAuth2

Description

After upgrading n8n from 2.3.4 to 2.18.5, we encountered an issue with the Chat Trigger Node.

When sending a chat message from the n8n GUI, the workflow now triggers a request to a webhook-test endpoint, for example:

http://localhost:5678/webhook-test/<id>/<sessionId>

This behavior was not present in earlier versions (e.g., 2.3.4) and appears to be a regression.

✅ Expected behavior

Sending a chat message from the GUI should:

• Not invoke the webhook-test endpoint, or
• Behave consistently with previous versions where this call was not made

❌ Actual behavior

• A POST request is sent to the webhook-test endpoint when triggering a chat message from the GUI
• The request is visible in the browser Network tab
• Workflow execution depends on this endpoint

💥 Impact

In our setup, both:

• webhook
• webhook-test

endpoints are protected by external OAuth2 authentication.

Because of this:

• The unexpected webhook-test call fails authentication
• It becomes impossible to test workflows via the n8n GUI without altering the security setup

🧪 Environment

• Previous version: 2.3.4 (working as expected)
• Current version: 2.18.5 (issue introduced)
• Setup: Localhost with OAuth2 protection on webhook endpoints

🙏 Request

• Is this behavior intentional or a bug?
• Is there a way to disable the webhook-test call for Chat Trigger nodes?

Any guidance or fixes would be appreciated.

To Reproduce

🔁 Steps to Reproduce

1. Install and run n8n version 2.3.4

2. Create a workflow with a Chat Trigger Node

3. Open the workflow in the n8n GUI

4. Send a test chat message via the built-in chat panel
   → ✅ Observe: Workflow executes successfully without any webhook-test request

5. Upgrade n8n to version 2.18.5

6. Open the same workflow (with Chat Trigger Node)

7. Open browser Developer Tools → Network tab

8. Send a test chat message via the n8n GUI chat panel

9. Observe the following:

   • A POST request is made to:

     /webhook-test/<id>/<sessionId>

   • The request appears in the Network tab
   • If access token protection is enabled on webhook endpoints, the request fails

10. Result:

• Workflow testing via GUI is blocked due to failed authentication on webhook-test endpoint

Expected behavior

Sending a chat message from the GUI should:

• Not invoke the webhook-test endpoint, or
• Behave consistently with previous versions where this call was not made

Debug Info

Debug info

core

• n8nVersion: 2.18.5
• platform: docker (self-hosted)
• nodeJsVersion: 24.14.1
• nodeEnv: production
• database: postgres
• executionMode: scaling (single-main)
• concurrency: -1
• license: enterprise (production)
• consumerId: a2790908-9d67-4d5e-b66a-f529069f804e

storage

• success: all
• error: all
• progress: false
• manual: true
• binaryMode: database

pruning

• enabled: true
• maxAge: 336 hours
• maxCount: 10000 executions

client

• userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (macintosh; intel mac os x 10_15_7) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/147.0.0.0 safari/537.36
• isTouchDevice: false

Generated at: 2026-05-04T15:27:31.094Z

Operating System

docker image n8nio/n8n:2.18.5

n8n Version

2.18.5

Node.js Version

v24.14.1

Database

PostgreSQL

Execution mode

main (default)

Hosting

self hosted