Merge Item Order Preserver via Ordinal Keys with Swap Report

How it works

1. 1.Run Demo Trigger; Emit Sample Records produces six fictional records including ones with empty emails.
2. 2.Assign Ordinal Keys adds a sequential ordinal to every item before any branching.
3. 3.Route by Amount sends items with amount over 100 to the high-value branch, others to the standard branch.
4. 4.Each Set node adds processingTier and emailStatus with includeOtherFields:true, preserving ordinal and customer fields.
5. 5.Append Branches combines both branches via append mode with two independent inputs, typically breaking the order.
6. 6.Resort by Ordinal and Report sorts ascending by ordinal, compares pre/post-merge positions, and emits one swap report.

Use cases

• Reports that must keep incoming row order after merging multiple processing branches
• Automatic detection of merge-induced reordering before publishing a workflow
• Customer record processing split into high-value and standard tiers with guaranteed sequence integrity

Requirements

• No credentials or external calls — the template is fully local
• To use real data: connect your real source directly to Assign Ordinal Keys with the same schema: id, customer, email, amount

Setup and testing in n8n

1. Import the JSON into n8n and open the workflow
2. Execute Demo Trigger and inspect Resort by Ordinal and Report: sortedCount=6 and sortedRecords matches input order
3. Verify swapReport states the merge changed 5 positions with item-by-item move details
4. Edge case: empty the records array in Emit Sample Records and confirm the safe no-items output

Service Value

Ready-made workflow template for automation delivery and service execution.