How can I stop a running n8n execution when both API calls and the delete node fail?

Below is an explanation of the situation and guidance on how to move forward:

Explanation

• The error messages you’re encountering indicate that n8n does not support stopping (or deleting) an execution that is currently in progress.
• When you send a POST to the stop endpoint or a DELETE request, n8n responds with either “The resource you are requesting could not be found” (for POST) or a “Bad request” error (via the delete execution node) because running executions cannot be stopped or deleted by design.

What This Means

• GET Requests Work:
  Retrieving execution information (via GET) works because the API can return details about a running execution.

• Stopping/Deletion Not Supported:
  The stop endpoint and the delete execution node are not meant to cancel an execution in flight. The error messages are a built-in safeguard to prevent manipulation of executions that have not yet been finalized.

Recommendations and Next Steps

• Designing Workflows:
  If you need to be able to cancel or conditionally abort a workflow execution, consider adding logic (such as a check on a variable or condition) within your workflow to determine if it should continue processing.

• Manual Intervention:
  In cases where an execution is running and you wish to stop its effect, you may need to intervene manually by stopping the n8n process itself or otherwise handling the consequences of the running workflow. However, this is not a built-in, supported means of cancellation.

• Feature Request or Upgrade:
  If stopping a running execution via the API is critical for your use case, it may be worth checking if newer versions of n8n provide additional functionality or logging a feature request with the n8n community on GitHub.

Summary

In summary, the functionality you attempted to use for stopping a running execution (via POST /executions/{id}/stop or using the delete execution node) is not supported in n8n version 1.79.0. The behavior you’re seeing is intended to prevent the deletion or interruption of an execution that is already running. Adjusting your workflow to check for cancellation conditions or planning for manual intervention may be necessary.

Feel free to ask if you have any further questions regarding workflow management in n8n.

The messages you’re seeing indicate that in n8n version 1.79.0 there isn’t support for stopping a running execution via either the API or the built-in delete execution node. In other words:

• The POST request to the /stop endpoint results in a “resource not found” error because there is no stop endpoint available in this version.
• The DELETE request and delete execution node intentionally prevent deleting (or “stopping”) a running execution. They were designed only to remove executions that have already finished.

If you need to stop a running workflow, you’ll have to use the manual stop function available in the n8n UI or allow the execution to complete. In later versions, there might be improvements or new endpoints for handling execution stops, so checking the release notes or upgrading may be an option if you require this functionality.

Keep in mind that currently, running executions are not designed to be terminated via an external request.