n8n-io/n8n · error · InterpreterError

Syntax error: ${error.message}

Error message

Syntax error: ${error.message}

What it means

Thrown by parseSDKCode (Acorn wrapper) when the input code fails to parse as valid JavaScript/ECMAScript. Acorn raises a SyntaxError; the wrapper extracts the location (line/column) from `error.loc` and re-throws as InterpreterError with a code frame. This is the top-level parse gate before any AST interpretation.

Source

Thrown at packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/ast-interpreter/parser.ts:39

	try {
		// Acorn's AST is compatible with ESTree, but TypeScript doesn't know that
		return acorn.parse(code, {
			ecmaVersion: 'latest',
			sourceType: 'module',
			locations: true, // Include line/column info for error messages
		}) as unknown as Program;
	} catch (error) {
		if (error instanceof SyntaxError) {
			// Extract location from Acorn's error message
			const match = (error as { loc?: { line: number; column: number } }).loc;
			const location = match
				? {
						start: { line: match.line, column: match.column },
						end: { line: match.line, column: match.column + 1 },
					}
				: undefined;

			throw new InterpreterError(`Syntax error: ${error.message}`, location, code);
		}
		throw error;
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5ac6606e81)

Solutions

1. Read the line/column in the error's code frame and fix the syntax at that exact location.
2. Paste the code into a JS/TS-aware editor (VS Code, ESLint) to locate the syntax error before submitting.
3. If the code was generated, regenerate it — do not hand-edit large generated blocks; if hand-editing, validate with a linter.
4. Check for unclosed template literals (backticks) and unbalanced brackets first — these are the most common cause flagged by the SDK error hint.

Example fix

// before
export default workflow()
  .add(node('X').parameters({ a: 1 )});

// after
export default workflow()
  .add(node('X').parameters({ a: 1 }));

// Validate syntax with a plain JS parser before feeding the SDK interpreter
import * as acorn from 'acorn';

function checkSyntax(code: string): { ok: true } | { ok: false; message: string; line?: number } {
  try {
    acorn.parse(code, { ecmaVersion: 'latest', sourceType: 'module', locations: true });
    return { ok: true };
  } catch (e) {
    const err = e as { message: string; loc?: { line: number } };
    return { ok: false, message: err.message, line: err.loc?.line };
  }
}

function isParsableModule(code: string): boolean {
  try {
    acorn.parse(code, { ecmaVersion: 'latest', sourceType: 'module' });
    return true;
  } catch {
    return false;
  }
}

import { parseSDKCode } from '@n8n/workflow-sdk/ast-interpreter/parser';
import { InterpreterError } from '@n8n/workflow-sdk/ast-interpreter/errors';

try {
  parseSDKCode(code);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof InterpreterError && /Syntax error/.test(e.message)) {
    // show the code frame + message to the user; the error carries line/column
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Unclosed template literals, missing commas, unbalanced brackets/braces/parens, invalid token sequences, unterminated strings, stray characters. Any input string that is not syntactically valid ES (parsed with ecmaVersion 'latest', sourceType 'module').

Common situations: Hand-editing generated SDK code and leaving a syntax error; JSON.stringify double-escaping producing malformed code; copy-paste introducing smart quotes or missing closing braces; template literal `${}` with unbalanced backticks.

Related errors

• VectorStore "${this.name}" requires an embedding model — set
• topK must be an integer >= 1, got ${k}
• Cannot assign property on ${String(obj)}
• Unsupported syntax: 'Dynamic property assignment' is not all
• Unsupported syntax: '${node.type}: ${FORBIDDEN_NODE_TYPES[no

AI-assisted analysis of n8n-io/n8n@5ac6606e81 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/823e4f652cf80069. Report an issue: GitHub.