# If I have a message is there a way to find out "who" sent it?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [25 December 2021 20:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690 "2021-12-25T20:04:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Trying\_to\_learn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/trying_to_learn/32/28400_2.png) [@Trying\_to\_learn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Trying_to_learn)\
**Post date:** [25 December 2021 20:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690/1 "2021-12-25T20:04:20Z")

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(Oops, I have not captured all the message here, but as an example)

Is there a way to know anything more about from where this message came?

![Message going into ACK EVENT node (copy)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/0/3/036a1ab385f532df1eb8db8e88c1c021dd5033b4.png)

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [25 December 2021 20:22 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690/2 "2021-12-25T20:22:39Z")

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You know what node has logged it. What path it took to get there isn't anything we can help with.

If that's information you need, then you should make sure the flows that send that message include some sort of identifier that is meaningful to you.

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**Author:** ![Trying\_to\_learn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/trying_to_learn/32/28400_2.png) [@Trying\_to\_learn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Trying_to_learn)\
**Post date:** [25 December 2021 20:26 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690/3 "2021-12-25T20:26:00Z")

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Not the end of the world.

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**Author:** ![nileio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/nileio/32/9444_2.png) [@nileio](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nileio)\
**Post date:** [30 December 2021 14:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690/4 "2021-12-30T14:37:22Z")

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this actually refers to a generic concept that node-red doesnt currently support out of the box, that is Data Provenance. This is not to say that Data Provenance is something that was considered a need anyway by the use cases of the project as I gathered. Also it does not mean it cannot be done, but this is a core design point. Also I don't necessarily suggest node-red should have support or a solution to this either at least for now! With the addition of node-red-debugger, this is now getting easier and with some custom work in the flow, it can be achieved but it is quite a task imho. However, in large enterprise projects and if the application is used particularly in data management of critical data, data provenance becomes extremely important in supporting compliance, optimization and troubleshooting. I had to go through this route in one project. I guess this is a different topic altogether but it was one of those things that I struggled with at the start..

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [13 January 2022 14:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/if-i-have-a-message-is-there-a-way-to-find-out-who-sent-it/55690/5 "2022-01-13T14:38:17Z")

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