Budibase + n8n: Dynamic tables and inconsistent data behaviour between dev and prod connections

[Philippe-M]

Checklist

• [ *] I have searched budibase discussions and github issues to check if my issue already exists

Hosting

• Self
  • Method: docker compose
  • Budibase Version: 3.37.5
  • App Version: 3.37.5
• n8n
  • Method: docker compose
  • Version : 2.17.3
• n8n-nodes-budibasedb
  • version 0.4.4

Describe the bug
I use Budibase and n8n — on the latter I installed the node to interact with an app from a workflow. In Budibase, I configured two "Connections": one to access in development mode (by passing the header value x-budibase-app-id: app_dev_myapp) and the other in production mode (by passing the header value x-budibase-app-id: app_myapp).

When I'm in the middle of testing, in n8n, I set the development connection and I can browse the datatables dynamically created by n8n and see the records. As soon as I switch to production mode (for both the app and the workflow), I can no longer see the tables created by the workflow. The most surprising thing is that I have tables I created directly from the Budibase designer that are perfectly visible from the interface.
And to add to the strange behaviour: I don't get the same result when saving data from n8n depending on whether I connect from the workflow using app_dev_myappid or app_myappid. On app_dev_myappid the records are partial/incorrect, whereas on app_myappid they appear correct.
It's hard to describe and unfortunately I can't share the workflow or the app.

Screenshot
Budibase connections

n8n connections

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Linux
• Browser Firefox
• Version 150

[mg1986jp]

The dev vs prod inconsistency with the Budibase-n8n connection is a common gotcha. In Budibase, the dev and prod environments use different database instances internally — dev changes don't automatically sync to prod until you publish.

So if your n8n workflow is connecting to the "published" (prod) database, any tables or schema changes you make in the Budibase dev environment won't be visible to n8n until you publish the app. And vice versa — if n8n writes data, it goes to the prod database, which you might not see in the dev UI.

Make sure:

1. Your n8n budibase node is connecting with the correct API key and app ID for the published version
2. After making table changes in Budibase, you publish the app before testing with n8n
3. The "dynamic tables" behavior might be because Budibase's internal schema changes in dev aren't reflected in the API until publish

For the data inconsistency, check if n8n is caching the table schema. Try clearing n8n's credential cache or restarting the n8n container after publishing Budibase changes.