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Skills CLI Reference

tip

This page documents the low-level n8nac skills commands that AI agents use behind the scenes. In normal usage, install the n8n-as-code skills for your agent, then ask the agent to initialize the workspace and perform n8n work for you.

If you're a contributor or power user, the full reference is in Contribution → Skills & AI Tools.

🎯 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

📦 Install Source​

Install the portable skills from the repository skills directory when you use a generic coding agent such as OpenCode, Codex, Hermes, or another skill-capable agent:

https://github.com/EtienneLescot/n8n-as-code/tree/main/skills

If your agent asks for an explicit skill path, use skills/n8n-architect.

The same skill content is also packaged on npm as @n8n-as-code/skills for n8nac and runtime usage.

After the skills are available, the agent can initialize the workspace itself: create or select an n8nac env environment, generate AGENTS.md, materialize local .agents/skills, and call n8nac skills commands as needed.

For debugging or advanced manual usage, the same tools are available through n8nac skills:

# 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

You usually do not need to run these commands yourself; agents and facades invoke them as part of their workflow.

🛠️ 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 - 🤖 Refresh AI Context​

Advanced context refresh command used by agents and facades when they initialize or refresh a workspace.

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:

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

Example AI Integration Workflow​

# AI Assistant workflow for generating n8n workflow code
1. User asks: "Create a workflow that reads from Google Sheets"
2. AI reads AGENTS.md and the local .agents/skills files if present
3. AI runs: npx --yes n8nac env status --json
4. AI runs: npx --yes n8nac skills search "google sheets"
5. AI gets node schemas: npx --yes n8nac skills node-info googleSheets
6. AI generates accurate TypeScript workflow code 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

🔄 Related Tools​

AI Context Generation​

Agent and facade setup can generate workspace context files for AI assistants. In normal usage, you install the skills or a facade and let the agent initialize or refresh the workspace.

For advanced manual debugging, the equivalent CLI command is:

n8nac update-ai

The generated context can include:

  • .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​

  1. Search for nodes you need:

    npx n8nac skills search "your query"

  2. Get detailed schema for a specific node:

    npx n8nac skills node-info nodeName

  3. List all available nodes:

    npx n8nac skills list

📖 Next Steps​

🆘 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.