fix(core): Add plain text body to password reset and notification emails

[guillaumejacquart]

Summary

Implements automatic conversion of HTML email bodies to plain text format, ensuring all email recipients receive both HTML and plain text versions. Converts links and buttons to 'text (url)' format for readability and properly handles MJML template structures. Includes comprehensive tests for all email templates (user-invited, password-reset-requested, workflow-shared, credentials-shared, project-shared, workflow-deactivated, and workflow-failure).

Here are the plain text templates:

    --- user-invited ---
    Welcome to n8n! 🎉
    You have been invited to join n8n at example.com.
    To accept, please click the button below.
    Set up your n8n account (https://n8n.example.com/invite/abc123)
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved
    --- end ---
    
    --- password-reset-requested ---
    Reset your n8n password
    Hi John,
    Somebody asked to reset your password on n8n at example.com.
    Click the following link to choose a new password.
    Set a new password (https://n8n.example.com/reset/abc123)
    
    The link is only valid for 20 minutes since this email was sent. If you did not request this email, you can safely ignore this. Your password will not be changed.
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved
    --- end ---
    
    --- workflow-shared ---
    A workflow has been shared with you
    "My Workflow" workflow has been shared with you.
    To access it, please click the button below.
    Open Workflow (https://n8n.example.com/workflow/123)
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved
    --- end ---
    
    --- credentials-shared ---
    A credential has been shared with you
    "My API Key" credential has been shared with you.
    To access it, please click the button below.
    Open credential (https://n8n.example.com/home/credentials)
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved
    --- end ---
    
    --- project-shared ---
    You have been added to the My Project project as editor
    
    This gives you access to all the workflows and credentials in that project.
    View project (https://n8n.example.com/projects/123)
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved
    --- end ---
    
    --- workflow-deactivated ---
    Workflow automatically deactivated
    n8n has automatically deactivated "My Workflow" due to repeated
    crashes.
    Please review its recent executions and resolve any issues before reactivating
    it.
    View Workflow (https://n8n.example.com/workflow/123)
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved
    --- end ---
    
    --- workflow-failure ---
    Hi John,
    ⚠️ Your workflow "My Workflow" ran into an error.
    Set up an error workflow now to get instant alerts on Gmail, Slack or any tool of your choice.
    Set up my Error Workflow (https://n8n.example.com/templates/2159)
    
    Tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTF3tACqPRU)
    
    Docs (https://docs.n8n.io/flow-logic/error-handling/)
    
    Happy automating,
    The n8n team
    
    n8n GmbH, Novalisstraße 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany
    
    ©2026 n8n GmbH, all rights reserved

Related Linear tickets, Github issues, and Community forum posts

https://linear.app/n8n/issue/IAM-376

Review / Merge checklist

• PR title and summary are descriptive
• Tests included (12 comprehensive unit tests covering all templates and edge cases)
• Docs updated or follow-up ticket created

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.

📢 Thoughts on this report? Let us know!

[cubic-dev-ai]

2 issues found across 2 files

Prompt for AI agents (unresolved issues)

Check if these issues are valid — if so, understand the root cause of each and fix them. If appropriate, use sub-agents to investigate and fix each issue separately.


<file name="packages/cli/src/user-management/email/__tests__/node-mailer.test.ts">

<violation number="1" location="packages/cli/src/user-management/email/__tests__/node-mailer.test.ts:86">
P3: Remove the debug `console.log` calls from these tests; they will spam CI output with full email bodies on every run.</violation>
</file>

<file name="packages/cli/src/user-management/email/node-mailer.ts">

<violation number="1" location="packages/cli/src/user-management/email/node-mailer.ts:88">
P2: Remove `<head>` content before generating plain text. In production these emails are compiled MJML HTML, so this tag-stripper will leak CSS/meta content into the `text/plain` part.

According to linked Linear issue IAM-376, the fallback needs to stay readable in plain-text-only clients.</violation>
</file>

Architecture diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant App as n8n Service (Auth/Workflow)
    participant NM as NodeMailer Service
    participant Utils as htmlToPlainText (Internal)
    participant SMTP as SMTP Transporter (Nodemailer)

    Note over App,SMTP: Email Dispatch Flow

    App->>NM: sendMail(mailData)
    Note right of App: Includes HTML body &<br/>optional textOnly override

    NM->>NM: NEW: Determine plain text content
    
    alt textOnly is provided
        NM->>NM: Use mailData.textOnly
    else body is HTML string
        NM->>Utils: NEW: Convert HTML to text
        Utils->>Utils: CHANGED: Extract URLs from <a> and <mj-button>
        Utils->>Utils: Strip HTML tags & decode entities
        Utils->>Utils: Normalize whitespace/newlines
        Utils-->>NM: Return plain text string
    else body is Buffer/Other
        NM->>NM: Set plain text as undefined
    end

    NM->>SMTP: sendMail({ from, to, subject, html, text })
    Note right of SMTP: Multi-part message (HTML + Text)
    
    alt SMTP Success
        SMTP-->>NM: Success
        NM-->>App: { emailSent: true }
    else SMTP Failure
        SMTP-->>NM: Error
        NM-->>App: { emailSent: false, error }
    end

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_{Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix. Tag @cubic-dev-ai to re-run a review.}

[cubic-dev-ai]

1 issue found across 2 files (changes from recent commits).

Prompt for AI agents (unresolved issues)

Check if these issues are valid — if so, understand the root cause of each and fix them. If appropriate, use sub-agents to investigate and fix each issue separately.


<file name="packages/cli/src/user-management/email/__tests__/node-mailer.test.ts">

<violation number="1" location="packages/cli/src/user-management/email/__tests__/node-mailer.test.ts:276">
P2: This test claims to cover script stripping, but the fixture never includes a `<script>` tag, so that branch can regress without failing the test.</violation>
</file>

_{Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix. Tag @cubic-dev-ai to re-run a review.}

[BGZStephen]

Code LGTM, might be nice tp provide testing instructions for this in case people want to test this out end to end

[n8n-assistant]

Got released with n8n@2.14.0