Bug Description

When N8N_WORKFLOWS_AUTOSAVE_DISABLED=true, adding a new node to an already-saved workflow and running it ("Execute step", or executing to that node) fails with:

Problem running workflow Could not find a node named "<Node Name>" in the workflow.

The newly added node is visible on the canvas but is never acknowledged by the execution. The same actions work as expected when autosave is enabled (the default).

Root cause (for discussion). Two changes interact:

• #30347 made the editor skip the save-before-execute step when autosave is disabled (the intended behavior of that flag).
• #25737 made the backend POST /workflows/:id/run endpoint execute only the stored (DB) copy of the workflow, ignoring any definition sent by the editor.

With autosave off, unsaved edits (new nodes, parameter changes, new connections) are never persisted, so the backend runs a stale DB copy that doesn't contain the new node — hence "Could not find a node." Before #30347, the editor force-saved dirty state on execute, which masked this; #30347 removed that, exposing the gap.

To Reproduce

1. Start n8n (self-hosted) with N8N_WORKFLOWS_AUTOSAVE_DISABLED=true.
2. Open an existing, already-saved workflow.
3. Add a new node to the canvas. Do not manually save.
4. Click "Execute step" on the new node (or execute the workflow to that node).
5. Observe the error: Could not find a node named "<Node Name>" in the workflow.

Expected behavior

With autosave disabled, executing should reflect what's on the canvas. The newly added node should run without the workflow being persisted.

Debug Info

Debug info

core

• n8nVersion: 2.22.4
• platform: docker (self-hosted)
• nodeJsVersion: 24.15.0
• nodeEnv: production
• database: sqlite
• executionMode: regular
• concurrency: -1
• license: enterprise (production)
• consumerId: 578f369c-7d81-411b-b8ee-3e50cfaf08b2

storage

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

pruning

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

client

• userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (windows nt 10.0; win64; x64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/148.0.0.0 safari/537.36
• isTouchDevice: false

cluster

• instanceCount: 1
• versions: 2.22.4
• instances:
  • instanceKey: e868fe34-8a71-4898-8580-fcc962f6b1fe, hostId: main-88e0651d3404, instanceType: main, instanceRole: leader, version: 2.22.4
• checks:
  • check: hostid-clash, status: succeeded, warnings: -
  • check: lifecycle, status: succeeded, warnings: -
  • check: split-brain, status: succeeded, warnings: -
  • check: version-mismatch, status: succeeded, warnings: -

Generated at: 2026-05-28T20:18:05.605Z

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS

n8n Version

2.22.4

Node.js Version

18.19.1

Database

SQLite (default)

Execution mode

main (default)

Hosting

self hosted