Built a Global Error Handler — 3 nodes, full account coverage

Wanted to share this one because it's not complex — but it's the workflow most people skip and then regret.

Before this, any silent failure across my 10 production workflows would go completely undetected. Gmail auth error, API timeout, Sheets quota — nothing. The client just doesn't get their email and I find out days later.

The architecture:

Error Trigger → JavaScript Code Node → Slack #error channel

What the JavaScript extracts:

workflowName — which workflow broke

nodeName — exact node that failed

errorMessage — what the error actually was

errorTime — timestamp in local timezone

The critical step most people miss:

On n8n Cloud, you register the error workflow per workflow individually — not account-wide. Go to each workflow → ... → Settings → Error Workflow → select your handler. Takes 2 minutes per workflow.

Test method:

Create a temporary workflow with an HTTP Request pointed at a fake URL. Activate it. Run it. It fails. Your error handler should fire within seconds.

Tested it live today — alert landed in Slack before I switched tabs.

One handler. Every workflow monitored. Zero silent failures.

Happy to share the JavaScript if anyone wants it. 👇

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