n8n-io/n8n · error · Error

Failed to fetch templates: ${response.status} ${response.sta

Error message

Failed to fetch templates: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}

What it means

fetchTemplateList in tools/web/templates.ts issues GET https://api.n8n.io/api/templates/search and throws a plain Error with the HTTP status and statusText when response.ok is false. This is an external API failure: the templates backend returned a non-2xx code (or the fetch itself resolved to an error response).

Source

Thrown at packages/@n8n/ai-workflow-builder.ee/src/tools/web/templates.ts:81

export async function fetchTemplateList(query: {
	search?: string;
	category?: Category;
	rows?: number;
	nodes?: string;
}): Promise<TemplateSearchResponse> {
	const queryString = buildSearchQueryString(query);
	const url = `${N8N_API_BASE_URL}/templates/search${queryString ? `?${queryString}` : ''}`;

	const response = await fetch(url, {
		method: 'GET',
		headers: {
			'Content-Type': 'application/json',
			Accept: 'application/json',
		},
	});

	if (!response.ok) {
		throw new Error(`Failed to fetch templates: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
	}

	const data: unknown = await response.json();
	if (!isTemplateSearchResponse(data)) {
		throw new Error('Invalid response format from templates API');
	}
	return data;
}

/**
 * Fetch a specific workflow template by ID from n8n API
 */
export async function fetchTemplateByID(id: number): Promise<TemplateFetchResponse> {
	const url = `${N8N_API_BASE_URL}/workflows/templates/${id}`;

	const response = await fetch(url, {
		method: 'GET',
		headers: {

View on GitHub (pinned to 5ac6606e81)

Solutions

1. Decode the HTTP status: 429 -> back off and retry; 5xx -> transient, retry with jitter; 4xx -> validate query parameters.
2. Retry with exponential backoff (e.g. 3 attempts) for 429/5xx.
3. Fall back to a cached/local template list or skip template enrichment.
4. Verify network egress to api.n8n.io is permitted (proxy/firewall).

Example fix

// before: single throw on any non-OK
const data = await fetchTemplateList(query);
// after: retry with backoff for transient statuses
async function fetchWithRetry(query, attempts = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < attempts; i++) {
    try { return await fetchTemplateList(query); }
    catch (e) {
      if (i === attempts - 1) throw e;
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2 ** i * 500));
    }
  }
}

// Validate query shape and retry only on transient statuses.
function isLikelyTransient(status: number): boolean {
  return status === 429 || status >= 500;
}

function isTemplateFetchError(e: unknown): e is Error {
  return e instanceof Error && /^Failed to fetch templates:/.test(e.message);
}

async function fetchTemplatesWithRetry(query, attempts = 3) {
  let lastErr: unknown;
  for (let i = 0; i < attempts; i++) {
    try {
      return await fetchTemplateList(query);
    } catch (e) {
      lastErr = e;
      const m = (e as Error).message;
      const status = Number(m.match(/\b(\d{3})\b/)?.[1] ?? 0);
      if (!isLikelyTransient(status)) throw e;
      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2 ** i * 500));
    }
  }
  throw lastErr;
}

When it happens

Trigger: api.n8n.io returns 4xx/5xx: 429 rate limit, 5xx outage, 404 from a malformed query string, or a network-layer error surfaced as a non-OK response.

Common situations: n8n template service outage; client network restricted or offline; aggressive polling triggering rate limits; bad search/category/nodes query parameters producing a 4xx; corporate proxy returning a block page.

Related errors

• Invalid response format from templates API
• Failed to fetch template ${id}: ${response.status} ${respons
• Invalid response format from template ${id} API
• Failed to fetch provider catalog: ${response.statusText}
• Supabase upsert failed: ${error.message}

AI-assisted analysis of n8n-io/n8n@5ac6606e81 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/17732233dadd8621. Report an issue: GitHub.