📌Overview

Purpose: The main goal of the n8n MCP Server is to facilitate interaction between AI assistants and n8n workflows using natural language commands.

Overview: The n8n MCP Server offers tools and resources that empower AI assistants to effectively manage n8n workflows. It supports a range of operations, making it easier to create, modify, and monitor workflows through an intuitive API.

Key Features:

Workflow Management: Enables listing, creating, updating, deleting, activating, and deactivating workflows, streamline management tasks for users.
Execution Management: Allows execution of workflows, along with monitoring execution status and accessing detailed execution logs, ensuring better control and oversight of workflows.

n8n MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants to interact with n8n workflows through natural language.

Overview

This MCP server provides tools and resources for AI assistants to manage n8n workflows and executions. It allows assistants to:

List, create, update, and delete workflows
Activate and deactivate workflows
Execute workflows and monitor their status
Access workflow information and execution statistics

Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js 18 or later
n8n instance with API access enabled

Install from npm

npm install -g n8n-mcp-server

Install from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/leonardsellem/n8n-mcp-server.git
cd n8n-mcp-server

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Optional: Install globally
npm install -g .

Configuration

Create a .env file in the directory where you'll run the server, using .env.example as a template:

cp .env.example .env

Configure the following environment variables:

Variable	Description	Example
`N8N_API_URL`	Full URL of the n8n API, including `/api/v1`	`http://localhost:5678/api/v1`
`N8N_API_KEY`	API key for authenticating with n8n	`n8n_api_...`
`N8N_WEBHOOK_USERNAME`	Username for webhook authentication (optional)	`username`
`N8N_WEBHOOK_PASSWORD`	Password for webhook authentication (optional)	`password`
`DEBUG`	Enable debug logging (optional)	`true` or `false`

Generating an n8n API Key

Open your n8n instance in a browser
Go to Settings > API > API Keys
Create a new API key with appropriate permissions
Copy the key to your .env file

Usage

Running the Server

From the installation directory or globally:

n8n-mcp-server

Integrating with AI Assistants

After building the server (npm run build), configure your AI assistant (e.g., VS Code with the Claude extension or the Claude Desktop app) to run it by editing a JSON configuration file.

Example Configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "n8n-local": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/your/cloned/n8n-mcp-server/build/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "N8N_API_URL": "http://your-n8n-instance:5678/api/v1",
        "N8N_API_KEY": "YOUR_N8N_API_KEY"
        // Add webhook credentials only if needed
        // "N8N_WEBHOOK_USERNAME": "your_webhook_user",
        // "N8N_WEBHOOK_PASSWORD": "your_webhook_password"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Key Points:

Replace /path/to/your/cloned/n8n-mcp-server/ with the actual absolute path.
Use the correct path separator for your OS (/ for macOS/Linux, \\ for Windows).
Provide the correct N8N_API_URL (including /api/v1) and N8N_API_KEY.
Build the server before running (npm run build).

Available Tools

Using Webhooks

This MCP server supports executing workflows through n8n webhooks. To use this functionality:

Create a webhook-triggered workflow in n8n.
Set up Basic Authentication on your webhook node.
Use the run_webhook tool to trigger the workflow by name.

Example:

const result = await useRunWebhook({
  workflowName: "hello-world",
  data: {
    prompt: "Hello from AI assistant!"
  }
});

Webhook authentication uses the N8N_WEBHOOK_USERNAME and N8N_WEBHOOK_PASSWORD environment variables.

Workflow Management Tools

workflow_list: List all workflows
workflow_get: Get details of a specific workflow
workflow_create: Create a new workflow
workflow_update: Update an existing workflow
workflow_delete: Delete a workflow
workflow_activate: Activate a workflow
workflow_deactivate: Deactivate a workflow

Execution Management Tools

execution_run: Execute a workflow via the API
run_webhook: Execute a workflow via a webhook
execution_get: Get details of a specific execution
execution_list: List executions for a workflow
execution_stop: Stop a running execution

Resources

n8n://workflows/list: List of all workflows
n8n://workflow/{id}: Details of a specific workflow
n8n://executions/{workflowId}: List of executions for a workflow
n8n://execution/{id}: Details of a specific execution

Development

Building

npm run build

Running in Development Mode

npm run dev

Testing

npm test

Linting

npm run lint

License

MIT