Skills CLI (Tools for AI agents)

The Skills CLI (n8nac) provides command-line tools specifically designed for AI coding assistants and developers working with n8n workflows. It allows you to search, retrieve, and list n8n node schemas programmatically.

🎯 Purpose

The Skills CLI is designed to:

Provide structured data about n8n nodes for AI coding assistants
Enable search capabilities for finding specific nodes by name or description
Generate JSON schemas that can be used for code completion and validation
Support AI context generation for better workflow suggestions
Access community workflows - Search and download from 7000+ real-world workflows

📦 Installation

The Skills CLI is available as an npm package and can be run directly with npx:

# Run with n8nac skills (if installed globally)
n8nac skills <command>

# Or run directly with npx
npx n8nac skills <command>

# Or install globally
npm install -g n8nac

Note: When you run update-ai from the main n8nac, ensure n8nac is available to the project (install locally with npm install --save-dev n8nac, install globally, or use npx). The VS Code extension is the only caller that generates the AGENTS.md and AI context files.

🛠️ Available Commands

`search <query>` - 🚀 Deep Unified Search (PRIMARY TOOL)

# Search nodes, docs, and tutorials
n8nac skills search "how to generate images"
n8nac skills search "google sheets"

# Filter by type
n8nac skills search "authentication" --type documentation
n8nac skills search "database" --type node

# Filter by category
n8nac skills search "ai" --category advanced-ai

`node-info <nodeName>` - 📚 Complete Node Info

Get full node information: schema + documentation + examples.

n8nac skills node-info googleSheets
n8nac skills node-info httpRequest

`node-schema <nodeName>` - ⚡ Quick Parameter Reference

n8nac skills node-schema googleSheets
# Returns only properties and required fields

`docs <title>` - 📖 Read Documentation

# Read a specific page
n8nac skills docs "Google Gemini"
n8nac skills docs "Expressions"

# List categories or stats
n8nac skills docs --list

`guides [query]` - 🎯 Find Guides

n8nac skills guides "email automation"
n8nac skills guides "ai workflow"
n8nac skills guides --list

`examples` - 🌐 Search & Download Community Workflows

n8nac skills examples search "slack notification"
n8nac skills examples search "AI chatbot telegram"
n8nac skills examples search "invoice processing" --limit 20
n8nac skills examples search "google sheets" --json

n8nac skills examples info 916
n8nac skills examples download 916
n8nac skills examples download 4365 --output my-chatbot.workflow.ts
n8nac skills examples download 8088 --force

n8nac skills examples list
n8nac skills examples list --limit 50

`related <query>` - 🔗 Discover Resources

n8nac skills related googleSheets
# Returns: Google Drive, Excel, Airtable, related docs

n8nac skills related "ai agents"
# Returns: AI-related concepts, nodes, examples

`list` - 📋 List Resources

# Summary of nodes and docs
n8nac skills list

# List all node names
n8nac skills list --nodes

# List all doc categories
n8nac skills list --docs

`validate <file>` - ✅ Validate Workflows

n8nac skills validate workflow.json
n8nac skills validate workflow.json --strict

`update-ai` - 🤖 Update AI Context

Update AI Context (AGENTS.md and snippets).

n8nac skills update-ai
n8nac skills update-ai --n8n-version 1.70.0
n8nac skills update-ai --n8n-version 1.70.0 --cli-version 1.2.3

📊 Output Format

All commands output JSON for easy parsing by scripts and AI tools:

Search Output Example

[
  {
    "name": "httpRequest",
    "displayName": "HTTP Request",
    "description": "Makes an HTTP request to a specified URL",
    "category": "Sync"
  },
  {
    "name": "httpBin",
    "displayName": "HTTP Bin",
    "description": "Test HTTP requests",
    "category": "Sync"
  }
]

Get Schema Output Example

{
  "name": "httpRequest",
  "displayName": "HTTP Request",
  "description": "Makes an HTTP request to a specified URL",
  "properties": [
    {
      "name": "url",
      "type": "string",
      "required": true,
      "description": "The URL to make the request to"
    },
    {
      "name": "method",
      "type": "string",
      "required": true,
      "default": "GET",
      "description": "HTTP method to use"
    }
  ]
}

🔧 Integration with AI Assistants

The Skills CLI is designed to be used by AI coding assistants to:

Understand n8n node structure - Get detailed schemas for accurate code generation
Provide context-aware suggestions - Search for relevant nodes based on user intent
Validate workflow JSON - Use schemas to validate generated workflow structures

Example AI Integration Workflow

# AI Assistant workflow for generating n8n workflow code
User asks: "Create a workflow that reads from Google Sheets"
AI runs: npx n8nac skills search "google sheets"
AI gets node schemas: npx n8nac skills node-info googleSheets
AI generates accurate JSON with proper parameters

📁 Data Source

The Skills CLI uses a pre-generated index of n8n nodes from the official n8n source code. The data is stored in dist/assets/ (generated during build):

n8n-knowledge-index.json: Unified FlexSearch index for the search command.
n8n-nodes-technical.json: Detailed technical schemas for the node-info command.
n8n-docs-complete.json: Full documentation content.

This includes:

All sync n8n nodes
Community nodes (when available)
Node properties and parameters
Type definitions and validation rules

AI Context Generation

The main CLI (n8nac) includes an update-ai command (with init-ai kept as an alias) that generates comprehensive context files for AI assistants:

n8nac update-ai

This command creates:

.vscode/n8n.code-snippets - Code snippets generated from n8n-nodes-index.json
n8n-nodes-index.json - Index of all available nodes
Documentation files for AI context

VS Code Extension

For visual editing with git-like sync controls, use the VS Code Extension.

Main CLI

For workflow management and automation, use the Main CLI.

🚀 Quick Start

Search for nodes you need:
```
npx n8nac skills search "your query"
```
Get detailed schema for a specific node:
```
npx n8nac skills node-info nodeName
```
List all available nodes:
```
npx n8nac skills list
```

📖 Next Steps

Learn about the Main CLI for workflow management
Explore the VS Code Extension for visual editing
Check the Contribution Guide for development details

🆘 Troubleshooting

Command not found:

# Make sure you're using the correct package name
npx n8nac skills --help

Node not found:

# Check available nodes first
npx n8nac skills list | grep "your-node"

JSON parsing issues:

# Pipe output to jq for pretty printing
npx n8nac skills search "http" | jq .

For more help, check the Troubleshooting guide or open an issue.

🎯 Purpose​

📦 Installation​

🛠️ Available Commands​

search <query> - 🚀 Deep Unified Search (PRIMARY TOOL)​

node-info <nodeName> - 📚 Complete Node Info​

node-schema <nodeName> - ⚡ Quick Parameter Reference​

docs <title> - 📖 Read Documentation​

guides [query] - 🎯 Find Guides​

examples - 🌐 Search & Download Community Workflows​

related <query> - 🔗 Discover Resources​

list - 📋 List Resources​

validate <file> - ✅ Validate Workflows​

update-ai - 🤖 Update AI Context​

📊 Output Format​

Search Output Example​

Get Schema Output Example​

🔧 Integration with AI Assistants​

Example AI Integration Workflow​

📁 Data Source​

🔄 Related Tools​

AI Context Generation​

VS Code Extension​

Main CLI​

🚀 Quick Start​

📖 Next Steps​

🆘 Troubleshooting​