Novu•5d ago

TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON

Hi There, I'm trying to test an endpoint for a TypeScript Express app using the Novu framework and I am encountering a TypeError that I don't understand. I don't know if this is a bug or if I have made a mistake implementing Novu. Details: I'm running my server locally and exposing the /api/novu bridge endpoint using ngrok. I'm using macOS 15.3.1 with 24GB of RAM. My npm version is 10.9.0 and running on Node 23.3.0 Here is the endpoint I have been trying to trigger in Postman:

// Middleware to parse JSON
app.use(express.json());

// Initialize Novu
const novu = new Novu(process.env.NOVU_SECRET_KEY || '')

app.use( "/api/novu", serve({ workflows: [testWorkflow] }) );


// POST  Send notification
app.post('/api/trigger-workflow', async (req, res): Promise<any> => {
    const { workflowName, payload, user } = req.body;

    if (!workflowName || !payload || !user) {
        return res.status(400).json({ message: 'Missing required fields' });
    }

    try {
        const result = await novu.trigger(workflowName, {
            to: {
                subscriberId: user.userId,
                email: user.email,
            },
            payload
        });
        
        res.status(200).json({success: true, result});
    } catch (err) {
        console.error('Error triggering Novu workflow', err);
        res.status(500).send('Server error');
    }
});

// Middleware to parse JSON
app.use(express.json());

// Initialize Novu
const novu = new Novu(process.env.NOVU_SECRET_KEY || '')

app.use( "/api/novu", serve({ workflows: [testWorkflow] }) );


// POST  Send notification
app.post('/api/trigger-workflow', async (req, res): Promise<any> => {
    const { workflowName, payload, user } = req.body;

    if (!workflowName || !payload || !user) {
        return res.status(400).json({ message: 'Missing required fields' });
    }

    try {
        const result = await novu.trigger(workflowName, {
            to: {
                subscriberId: user.userId,
                email: user.email,
            },
            payload
        });
        
        res.status(200).json({success: true, result});
    } catch (err) {
        console.error('Error triggering Novu workflow', err);
        res.status(500).send('Server error');
    }
});

I attached a screenshot of the error as well as the request I am trying to make in Postman. Here is the workflow in my code:

export const testWorkflow = workflow('test-workflow', async ({ step, payload }) => {
  await step.inApp('Send in-app message', async () => {
    return {
      subject: `Hello, ${payload.recipient}`,
      body: `This is your first Novu message from ${payload.userName}`,
    };
  });
}, {
  payloadSchema: z.object({
    userName: z.string().default('Jimmy Doe'),
    recipient: z.string().default('Recipient')
  }),
});

export const testWorkflow = workflow('test-workflow', async ({ step, payload }) => {
  await step.inApp('Send in-app message', async () => {
    return {
      subject: `Hello, ${payload.recipient}`,
      body: `This is your first Novu message from ${payload.userName}`,
    };
  });
}, {
  payloadSchema: z.object({
    userName: z.string().default('Jimmy Doe'),
    recipient: z.string().default('Recipient')
  }),
});

Thanks so much for your help. I hope I'm not making a stupid mistake 😅

3 Replies

Pawan Jain•5d ago

@Dara In this line

res.status(200).json({success: true, result});

res.status(200).json({success: true, result});

Instead of sending the entire result, carefully select the properties you need create a new object, and then send

DaraOP•5d ago

Thanks @Pawan Jain ! I missed that line! I was able to send the data I needed from the result object instead of the whole result. Thanks for your swift help!

Novu_Bot•5d ago

@Dara, you just advanced to level 1!

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TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON

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