n8n 2.38.4 Released with Improved Stability and Resilience
n8n version 2.38.4 was released on September 7, 2026, focusing primarily on stability and resilience improvements for self-hosted instances. This patch addresses several issues that could cause tasks to hang, services to fail, or workflows to become permanently broken.
Several fixes target the task runner and shutdown process. Task runner timeouts are now capped to the graceful shutdown window, preventing tasks from running indefinitely during shutdown. The shutdown order has also been corrected, ensuring the task broker stops before the task runner processes, which avoids potential conflicts. Additionally, the npm audit step during Instance AI sandbox setup was adjusted so it no longer stalls the process, speeding up initial setup.
Other improvements include better handling of external secrets providers: if a replacement provider fails, the currently serving provider remains active, preventing a loss of access to secrets. Also, the Anthropic agent thread handling was fixed to avoid permanent breakage and to keep run errors visible, making debugging easier for users.
These changes are part of n8n’s ongoing efforts to improve reliability for self-hosted users, especially those running complex automations or using AI features.
