Junior Me Built Workflows That Work. Senior Me Builds Workflows That Survive.

I built an n8n workflow in 20 minutes. Then spent 3 hours figuring out why it stopped working a week later. Now I build differently. Here's what changed. The problem with "it works" thinking When a workflow runs successfully in testing, it's tempting to move on. But in a real company, automations run hundreds of times a day without anyone watching. The question is not whether it works today. It's whether it still works next Tuesday at 3am when nobody is around. 1. Use the Error Trigger node. Seriously. n8n has a built-in Error Trigger node. Most people never touch it. Connect it to Slack or email on every critical workflow. When something fails it fires automatically. But don't just send "workflow failed." Send context: which workflow, which node, what the input was, what the error said. A useful alert fixes the problem in 5 minutes. A vague one wastes your entire morning. 2. Validate before you process Add an IF node early in your flow to check that required fields exist and look righ