Zie619/n8n-workflows · error · Error

Input text is empty

Error message

Input text is empty

What it means

Thrown by the runOnceForEachItem 'Code' node (workflow 0725). For each incoming item it reads $input.item.json.text and throws when it is falsy — undefined, null, or empty string. Because the node runs per item, one bad item among many aborts the whole execution at that item.

Source

Thrown at workflows/Splitout/0725_Splitout_Code_Update_Triggered.json:25

    "owner": "n8n-user",
    "license": "MIT",
    "category": "automation",
    "status": "active",
    "priority": "high",
    "environment": "production"
  },
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "cbc036f7-b0e1-4eb4-94c3-7571c67a1efe",
      "name": "Code",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code",
      "position": [
        -120,
        40
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "mode": "runOnceForEachItem",
        "jsCode": "// Get the input text\nconst text = $input.item.json.text;\n\n// Ensure text is not null or undefined\nif (!text) {\n  throw new Error('Input text is empty');\n}\n\n// Function to split text into sentences while preserving dates and list items\nfunction splitIntoSentences(text) {\n  const monthNames = '(?:Januar|Februar|März|April|Mai|Juni|Juli|August|September|Oktober|November|Dezember)';\n  const datePattern = `(?:\\\\d{1,2}\\\\.\\\\s*(?:${monthNames}|\\\\d{1,2}\\\\.)\\\\s*\\\\d{2,4})`;\n  \n  // Split by sentence-ending punctuation, but not within dates or list items\n  const regex = new RegExp(`(?<=[.!?])\\\\s+(?=[A-ZÄÖÜ]|$)(?!${datePattern}|\\\\s*[-•]\\\\s)`, 'g');\n  \n  return text.split(regex)\n    .map(sentence => sentence.trim())\n    .filter(sentence => sentence !== '');\n}\n\n// Split the text into sentences\nconst sentences = splitIntoSentences(text);\n\n// Output a single object with an array of sentences\nreturn { json: { sentences: sentences } };"
      },
      "typeVersion": 2,
      "notes": "This code node performs automated tasks as part of the workflow."
    },
    {
      "id": "faae4740-a529-4275-be0e-b079c3bfde58",
      "name": "Split Out1",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.splitOut",
      "position": [
        340,
        -180
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "options": {
          "destinationFieldName": "claim"
        },
        "fieldToSplitOut": "sentences"
      },

View on GitHub (pinned to 94007c1445)

Solutions

1. Inspect the upstream item's json keys and read the text from the correct field (see exampleFix).
2. Trim before checking so whitespace-only input is caught, and skip empty items instead of throwing.
3. Add a Filter node (text is not empty) before this Code node.
4. If text can legitimately be empty, return an empty sentences array rather than failing the run.

Example fix

// before
const text = $input.item.json.text;
if (!text) {
  throw new Error('Input text is empty');
}

// after
const text = ($input.item.json.text ?? $input.item.json.content ?? '').trim();
if (!text) {
  return { json: { sentences: [], skipped: 'empty text' } };
}

const text = String($input.item.json.text ?? $input.item.json.content ?? '').trim();
if (!text) {
  return { json: { sentences: [], skipped: true } };
}

function hasText(item) {
  const t = item?.json?.text;
  return typeof t === 'string' && t.trim().length > 0;
}

When it happens

Trigger: An upstream item simply has no text field: the source node puts content under a different key (content, body, description, plain text of an email/PDF), or the document was genuinely empty. Whitespace-only strings (' ') pass the check but then produce zero sentences downstream.

Common situations: Gmail/PDF/RSS trigger renamed output fields between n8n versions; a previous Set node mapping $('text') against a missing field yielding undefined; empty attachments or blank documents in the batch; German-language sentence splitter receiving items from a filter that dropped the text field.

Related errors

• Input text is empty
• One or more input arrays are empty. Check your previous node
• No EDI message found in input. Please provide the EDI messag
• The video ID parameter is empty.
• No input data received

AI-assisted analysis of Zie619/n8n-workflows@94007c1445 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a6544523741ef69c. Report an issue: GitHub.