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Local Dev Workspace

Published agent instructions intentionally use npx --yes n8nac by default. This is required for VS Code, Cursor, MCP clients, and agent environments where the n8nac binary is not installed globally.

Local end-to-end development uses an explicit override instead of changing that default.

Workspace​

Use the n8n-ecosystem-dev helper workspace when you need to test multiple local repos together. It bootstraps n8n-as-code, n8n-manager, dev state, command overrides, and smoke-test commands in one place.

Example local workflow:

cd /home/etienne/repos/n8n-ecosystem-dev
pnpm dev:bootstrap
source .env.dev
pnpm dev:doctor

The workspace points every facade at local builds:

N8NAC_COMMAND="node /home/etienne/repos/n8n-ecosystem-dev/n8n-as-code/packages/cli/dist/index.js"
N8N_MANAGER_COMMAND="node /home/etienne/repos/n8n-ecosystem-dev/n8n-manager/packages/cli/dist/index.js"
N8N_MANAGER_STATE_PATH="/home/etienne/repos/n8n-ecosystem-dev/.dev-state/n8n-manager/instance.json"

Command Resolution SSOT​

Generated AGENTS.md and skill prompts resolve the n8nac command in this order:

  1. --cli-cmd
  2. N8NAC_COMMAND
  3. .n8nac-dev.json in the target workspace
  4. published fallback: npx --yes n8nac

This keeps production and extension behavior safe while making local dev reproducible.

The helper repository is optional for normal package work in this repo, but it is the recommended path for end-to-end facade/runtime testing across n8n-as-code and n8n-manager.

Local AI Context Test​

cd /home/etienne/repos/n8n-ecosystem-dev
pnpm dev:test:ai-context

This generates an isolated .dev-state/ai-context-workspace/AGENTS.md and fails if it still contains the published npx --yes n8nac command while N8NAC_COMMAND is set.