Lesson 8 of 12 Phase 3 · Advanced Techniques

Logic, Routing & Branching

Real-world automation is never a straight line. This lesson teaches you to build workflows that make decisions: routing data down different paths, merging parallel branches, and processing items conditionally with IF nodes, Switch nodes, and Merge nodes.

🔀
IF Node
True/False routing
🔁
Switch Node
Multi-path routing
⬇️
Merge Node
Combine branches
🎯
Expressions
Dynamic conditions
Section 1

IF Node — True or False Branching

The IF node is the most fundamental decision-maker in N8N. It evaluates a condition and sends each item down either the true output or the false output. Think of it as a fork in the road for your data.

1
Add an IF Node
Click + from any node, search "IF". The node has two outputs: "true" (green dot) and "false" (red dot). Connect downstream nodes to each output separately — they run independently.
2
Configure the Condition
Click the IF node. Click "Add Condition". Choose the left operand (usually a field from your data like {{ $json.status }}), select an operator (equals, contains, greater than, etc.), then enter the right operand value to compare against.
3
Chain Multiple Conditions
Add multiple conditions and set the combiner to AND (all must be true) or OR (any must be true). Example: status equals "active" AND score is greater than 80.
Example: Route by order status 
Condition: {{ $json.order_status }} equals "shipped"

True path  → Send "Your order is on its way!" email
False path → Send "Your order is still being processed." email
Section 2

Switch Node — Multi-Path Routing

When you have more than two possible routes, use the Switch node. It routes each item to one of up to 4+ output ports based on the value of a field, similar to a switch/case statement in programming.

💡
When to use Switch vs IF: IF is for binary decisions (true/false). Switch is for categorical decisions where a field can have several distinct values — like routing by country, category, priority level, or user tier.
1
Set the Switch Mode
The Switch node has two modes: Rules (compare a value against different criteria) or Expression (dynamically route based on a formula). Rules mode is easier for most cases.
2
Define Output Cases
Add one rule per output. Example: Output 1 if priority equals "high", Output 2 if priority equals "medium", Output 3 if priority equals "low". Enable "Fallback Output" to catch anything that doesn't match any rule.
Switch Node — Priority Routing 
Field: {{ $json.priority }}

Output 0 → equals "critical"  → PagerDuty alert
Output 1 → equals "high"      → Slack message
Output 2 → equals "low"       → Spreadsheet log
Fallback  → (anything else)   → Email digest
Section 3

Merge Node — Combining Branches

After branching with IF or Switch, you often need to bring data back together — for example, to send a single final email regardless of which path was taken. The Merge node does exactly this.

➕
Append Mode
Collects items from all connected inputs and passes them all through together. The total output is the sum of all input items.
🤝
Merge by Key
Joins two streams like a database JOIN. Matches items from Input 1 and Input 2 on a shared key field (like user_id) and combines their properties.
⏳
Wait Mode
Holds all items until ALL connected branches have completed, then releases. Use this for parallel processing that must complete before the next step.
⚠️
Common mistake: Connecting three nodes all into one downstream node does NOT automatically merge them. You must explicitly add a Merge node. Without it, N8N will run the downstream node once per upstream node independently, which is rarely what you want.

🧠 Logic & Routing Check

1. Your workflow receives orders and needs to route "premium" users to one path and everyone else to a different path. Which node should you use?
2. You split data with a Switch node into 3 paths, process each, and want to send ONE final summary email combining results from all 3 paths. What do you need?
3. What does the Fallback Output on the Switch node do?
Finished Lesson 8?

You can now build workflows that make smart decisions. Try building a branching workflow!

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