HTTP node

The HTTP node calls an external API — a webhook, a REST endpoint, a third-party service — and stores the response so later nodes can read the status and body. It's the main way a flow reaches out to another system.

Component id: flowrunner/http. This is an I/O node: it makes a network request and can fail for reasons outside your flow, so it carries an error port.

How it works

The node builds and sends a fetch request:

• Method — from method (default GET), upper-cased.
• URL — from url, with ${env.X} and ${secrets.X} resolved. A missing URL fails the node (http: missing url).
• Headers — each value in headers is resolved for ${env.X} / ${secrets.X}.
• Body — only sent for methods other than GET/HEAD, and only when body is set. A string body is used as-is (after resolving ${...}). A non-string body is JSON.stringify-ed, and Content-Type: application/json is added automatically unless you already set one.

The response is read as text and, if it parses as JSON, stored as parsed JSON — otherwise the raw text is kept. The node then stores an object under resultVar (default response):

{
  status: <HTTP status number>,
  ok: <true when status is 2xx>,
  body: <parsed JSON, or raw text>
}

Config

Field	Required	Description
url	Yes	The request URL. Resolves ${env.X} and ${secrets.X}. Missing URL fails the node.
method	No (default GET)	HTTP method, e.g. GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE.
headers	No	Object of header name → value. Each value resolves ${env.X} / ${secrets.X}.
body	No	Request body (only sent for non-GET/HEAD). String bodies are sent verbatim; objects are JSON-encoded with an automatic Content-Type.
resultVar	No (default response)	The variable the { status, ok, body } result is stored under.

Ports

Port	Followed when
next	The request completed (any HTTP status — a 404 or 500 still counts as a completed request; check response.ok).
error	The request threw — network failure, DNS error, timeout. The error message is http: <reason> and is also written to error.message.

NOTE

A 404 or 500 response does not take the error port — the request succeeded, the server just answered with an error status. Branch on response.ok or response.status with an If node to handle those. The error port fires only when the request itself couldn't complete.

Example

Post a form submission to a CRM, authenticating with a secret:

HTTP  method: POST   url: https://crm.example.com/leads
  headers: { Authorization: "Bearer ${secrets.CRM_TOKEN}" }
  body: { email: start.email, name: start.name }
  resultVar: crm
# read later as: crm.status, crm.ok, crm.body.id

TIP

Keep API keys and tokens out of the URL and headers as plain text — store them as workspace secrets and reference them with ${secrets.NAME}.

See also

• Email node
• MongoDB node
• Secrets
• Error handling in flows