How to Retry Failed Claude Calls Automatically in n8n

Open your Claude node in the main workflow. Click the Settings tab and enable 'Retry On Fail'. Set Max Retries to 2 and Wait Between Retries to 5000 (milliseconds). This handles transient failures like brief network blips or momentary 500 errors. The built-in retry is fast but limited — it uses fixed delays and cannot distinguish between error types. It is your first line of defense, not your only one.

Create a new workflow and name it 'Claude Retry Handler'. Add an Error Trigger node as the start node. This workflow will fire whenever the main workflow fails after exhausting its built-in retries. The Error Trigger receives the full execution context including the error message, the workflow ID, and the execution data.

After the Error Trigger, add a Code node that inspects the error message and classifies it into categories: rate_limit (429), server_error (500/529), timeout (ETIMEDOUT/ESOCKETTIMEDOUT), or permanent (401/403/invalid request). Each category gets a different retry strategy. Rate limits get long backoff, server errors get medium backoff, timeouts get short backoff, and permanent errors are not retried.

1const execution = $input.first().json;
2const errorMsg = (execution.execution?.error?.message || '').toLowerCase();
3
4let category = 'unknown';
5let maxRetries = 3;
6let baseDelaySeconds = 10;
7
8if (errorMsg.includes('429') || errorMsg.includes('rate_limit') || errorMsg.includes('rate limit')) {
9  category = 'rate_limit';
10  maxRetries = 5;
11  baseDelaySeconds = 30;
12} else if (errorMsg.includes('500') || errorMsg.includes('529') || errorMsg.includes('overloaded')) {
13  category = 'server_error';
14  maxRetries = 3;
15  baseDelaySeconds = 15;
16} else if (errorMsg.includes('timeout') || errorMsg.includes('etimedout') || errorMsg.includes('esockettimedout')) {
17  category = 'timeout';
18  maxRetries = 3;
19  baseDelaySeconds = 5;
20} else if (errorMsg.includes('401') || errorMsg.includes('403') || errorMsg.includes('invalid_api_key')) {
21  category = 'permanent';
22  maxRetries = 0;
23  baseDelaySeconds = 0;
24}
25
26const retryCount = (execution.retryCount || 0) + 1;
27const shouldRetry = category !== 'permanent' && category !== 'unknown' && retryCount <= maxRetries;
28const waitSeconds = shouldRetry ? baseDelaySeconds * Math.pow(2, retryCount - 1) : 0;
29
30return [{
31  json: {
32    shouldRetry,
33    category,
34    retryCount,
35    maxRetries,
36    waitSeconds,
37    errorMessage: errorMsg,
38    originalPayload: execution.execution?.data?.resultData?.runData || {}
39  }
40}];

After the classifier Code node, add an IF node that checks {{ $json.shouldRetry }}. The true branch leads to the retry path (Wait node then re-trigger). The false branch leads to the dead-letter path where you log the permanent failure and optionally send a notification.

On the true branch of the IF node, add a Wait node. Set it to 'After Time Interval' and use the expression {{ $json.waitSeconds }} for the wait amount (in seconds). After the Wait node, add an HTTP Request node that POSTs the original payload back to your main workflow's webhook URL. Include the retryCount in the payload so the main workflow can track how many times this request has been retried.

1// HTTP Request node configuration:
2// Method: POST
3// URL: {{ $env.WEBHOOK_URL }}/webhook/your-claude-workflow-path
4// Body Content Type: JSON
5// Body: {
6//   "message": "{{ $json.originalPayload.message }}",
7//   "userId": "{{ $json.originalPayload.userId }}",
8//   "retryCount": {{ $json.retryCount }}
9// }

On the false branch of the IF node, add a Code node that formats the failure details, then optionally send a notification via Slack, email, or store the failure in a database. This ensures you know about requests that cannot be recovered automatically. Include the error category, message, retry count, timestamp, and original payload in the dead-letter record.

1const input = $input.first().json;
2
3const deadLetter = {
4  timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
5  category: input.category,
6  errorMessage: input.errorMessage,
7  retryCount: input.retryCount,
8  maxRetriesReached: input.retryCount > input.maxRetries,
9  originalPayload: input.originalPayload,
10  action: 'manual_review_required'
11};
12
13return [{ json: deadLetter }];