Saving, publishing and executions

In n8n 2.x your edits save automatically within a few seconds, and each change is kept in the workflow's version history. Saving is not the same as going live.

To make a workflow run on its own, click Publish (top right). Publishing makes the current version live: schedules start, app triggers listen, and webhook and form triggers use their production addresses. You can name the published version and add a description.

Afterwards you can keep editing. Your changes stay as a draft, and production keeps running the last published version until you publish again. This replaces the Active/Inactive switch of n8n 1.x, so older tutorials that say "activate the workflow" mean "publish".

Unpublish takes the workflow out of production. Version history lets you restore an older version or publish a different one, which is how you roll back a bad change.

Every run is an execution. The workflow's Executions tab lists them with status (success, error, running, waiting) and time. Open one to see the data at every node, exactly as it was. Production runs are only visible here, not on the editing canvas.

Two settings worth knowing:

• Which executions to save (all, or only failed ones), which matters for privacy and disk space on busy workflows.
• The workflow's time zone, used by Schedule triggers.

Only one person can edit a workflow at a time; others see it read-only.