Retry on fail except for known error

Description

Purpose

This workflow snippet allows for advanced error catching during retry attempts.

There are cases, where you want to check if an item exists first, so you can determine the following actions. Some API’s do not support an endpoint (e.g. Todoist: completed tasks) to do so, which is why you would work with the error branch, only that this does not work well in combination with the retry functionality.

How it works

Instead of the builtin retry function of a Node a custom loop is used, to get more granular control in between the iterations
If the main executed node fails, the error can be filtered for an expected error, which can trigger a separate action
The retries only happen, if an unexpected error happened
The workflow only stops, if the defined amount of retries exceeded

Setup

Copy the nodes into your existing workflow
Replace the “Replace me” placeholder with the Node you want to apply the retry logic on
Follow the sticky notes for more instructions and optional settings