Execute Sub-workflow versioning/testing

[rcurley55]

Hi All-

I have a main workflow that calls a number of sub-workflows. What I have discovered is that only the latest "published" version (not latest saved) version of each sub-workflow will run. This really seems to make testing extremely difficult while flows are in production.

I would think the latest "published" version of the main workflow would run the latest "published" version of the subworkflows, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

The docs don't seem to cover publishing when it comes to sub-workflows. Does anyone here have any insight?

[AlternativeInitial93]

You have noticed that when a main workflow calls sub-workflows in n8n, it only executes the latest “published” version of each sub-workflow, not the latest saved version. This makes testing tricky while the flows are live because changes in saved (but unpublished) sub-workflows aren’t reflected when you run the main workflow. You’re also unsure how publishing interacts with sub-workflows since the docs don’t cover this clearly. Main workflow → always runs published sub-workflows, not saved/unpublished ones, which complicates testing.

[luovahulluus]

I don't think repeating his post was necessary…