n8n Knowledge MCP Server

n8n Knowledge

Search nodes, inspect schemas, browse templates, and validate workflow JSON offline before touching a live n8n instance.

Workflow

1. Discover nodes — n8n_index_search_nodes by capability; filter with nodeCategoryId / nodeCategoryName or includeBrowseCategories=true for the browse tree; set includeOperations=true for resource/operation/mode trees on integration nodes.
2. Inspect schema — n8n_index_get_node for one node, or requests[] for up to 10 filtered lookups with resource/operation/mode context.
3. Find examples — n8n_index_search_templates with mode=by_metadata (categoryName, minViews), facetField + facetValue (nodes / apps / categories), or keyword search; then n8n_index_get_template with mode=structure or mode=full.
4. Validate offline — n8n_index_validate_draft before deploy to catch missing node names, malformed connection edges, Set typeVersion mismatches, and unknown node types.
5. Learn patterns — n8n_index_get_patterns, n8n_index_get_ai_patterns, and n8n_index_get_guides; use n8n_index_suggest_nodes for category-based node picks.
6. Repair drafts — n8n_index_repair_draft in preview mode before applying fixes to workflow JSON.

Deploy-safe workflow JSON

• Connections map by node name — each source is an object, not an array: "Manual Trigger": {"main": [[{"node": "Set Message", "type": "main", "index": 0}]]}. A bare array under the source name is rejected by the n8n API.
• Every connection edge needs node, type (usually main), and index (usually 0). Edges like {"node": "Set"} are rejected by the n8n API.
• Match each node's typeVersion to the index: inspect n8n_index_get_node config examples for your parameter shape, or run n8n_index_validate_draft / n8n_index_repair_draft to align against catalog exemplars and supported node versions.
• Wrap dynamic values as ={{ $json.field }}; bare $json.field strings fail at runtime on many nodes.

Gotchas

• Node types are exact strings such as n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest or @n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.agent.
• Community preview names in upstream feeds are normalized to installed package names in this index.
• Template workflow JSON lives on the inner workflow.workflow path in n8n's API; this index stores the parsed workflow already.
• Offline validation catches structural issues only; live instance validation still needs the user's n8n connection.