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Agent Skills Adapters

This page documents the standard agent skills distributed by n8n-as-code.

Package Overview​

  • Source package: packages/skills/
  • Canonical skill: packages/skills/src/agent-skills/n8n-architect/SKILL.md
  • Build script: packages/skills/scripts/build-skill-adapters.js
  • Purpose: Package shared n8n instructions as portable skills for Claude, OpenClaw, Cursor, VS Code-generated workspaces, and generic agents.
  • Source of truth: the canonical src/agent-skills/n8n-architect/SKILL.md file.

Architecture​

n8n-architect owns workspace readiness, environments, local managed instance guidance, tunnels, context-root workflow authoring, sync, schema lookup, validation, push/pull, and workflow testing discipline.

The skill tells agents to use n8nac as the primary interface, including workflow presentation through n8nac workflow present, and n8n-manager only for local managed runtime lifecycle and tunnels.

AGENTS.md is generated in the context root by n8nac update-ai, but it is only a bootstrap file. It points agents to .agents/skills and tells them to resolve effective environment state with n8nac env status --json. It must not duplicate environment, project, or workflowsPath state.

Build Output​

The adapter build mirrors the canonical skill into:

packages/skills/dist/adapters/agent-skills/
plugins/claude/n8n-as-code/skills/
plugins/openclaw/n8n-as-code/skills/
plugins/cursor/n8n-as-code/skills/

The package build also copies the canonical skill into:

packages/skills/dist/agent-skills/

At runtime, n8nac update-ai materializes context-root copies:

.agents/skills/n8n-architect/SKILL.md

Development​

cd packages/skills
npm run build
npm run build:adapters

Change the canonical SKILL.md file first. Do not hand-edit generated plugin copies except to inspect build output.

Local Verification​

npm test --workspace=packages/skills -- --runInBand ai-context-generator.test.ts
npx vitest run --config packages/cli/vitest.config.ts packages/cli/tests/integration/update-ai.integration.test.ts

The tests verify that:

  • AGENTS.md remains lightweight.
  • .agents/skills is generated.
  • packaged plugin skills match canonical generated skills.
  • OpenClaw no longer relies on native n8nac tool actions.

SKILL.md Format​

Each skill must follow the standard frontmatter shape:

---
name: n8n-architect
description: Use when the user wants to create, edit, validate, sync, or troubleshoot n8n workflows.
---

Use clear imperative instructions and shell commands. Do not add facade-specific tool calls or undocumented CLI flags.

Release Notes​

Changes to these skills are changes to @n8n-as-code/skills, because that package owns canonical skill content, generated workspace context, and facade mirrors.