n8n MCP Server

What is n8n MCP Server?

This n8n MCP server is a community-built Model Context Protocol server (@leonardsellem/n8n-mcp-server) that lets AI assistants list, create, update, activate and run n8n workflows and inspect their executions through the n8n REST API, using natural language.

It is not made by n8n. It connects to your own n8n instance, cloud or self-hosted, with an n8n API key, and runs locally over stdio from npm, from source or as a Docker image. n8n itself now also offers built-in MCP options, covered in the comparison below.

How to use n8n MCP Server?

Prerequisites: Node.js 20 or later, and an n8n instance with API access enabled.

1. Create an n8n API key. In your n8n instance, go to Settings > API > API Keys, create a key with appropriate permissions and copy it.

2. Install the server.

npm install -g @leonardsellem/n8n-mcp-server

Or run it with Docker:

docker run -e N8N_API_URL=http://your-n8n:5678/api/v1 \
  -e N8N_API_KEY=your_n8n_api_key \
  -e N8N_WEBHOOK_USERNAME=username \
  -e N8N_WEBHOOK_PASSWORD=password \
  leonardsellem/n8n-mcp-server

3. Set environment variables.

Variable	Purpose
N8N_API_URL	Full n8n API URL including /api/v1, e.g. http://localhost:5678/api/v1
N8N_API_KEY	Your n8n API key
N8N_WEBHOOK_USERNAME / N8N_WEBHOOK_PASSWORD	Basic Auth credentials, only if you use webhook tools
DEBUG	Optional debug logging

Claude Desktop and VS Code

The README's example config runs the built file with node. Use the absolute path to build/index.js after npm run build:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "n8n-local": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/your/cloned/n8n-mcp-server/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "N8N_API_URL": "http://your-n8n-instance:5678/api/v1",
        "N8N_API_KEY": "YOUR_N8N_API_KEY"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

If you installed globally from npm, the README notes you can use n8n-mcp-server as the command instead of the node path.

Claude Code

With the global npm install:

claude mcp add n8n -e N8N_API_URL=http://localhost:5678/api/v1 -e N8N_API_KEY=YOUR_N8N_API_KEY -- n8n-mcp-server

Cursor

Use the same mcpServers block in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, with n8n-mcp-server or the node path as the command.

Key features of n8n MCP Server

• Full workflow management: list, get, create, update, delete, activate and deactivate
• Run workflows through the n8n API or through webhooks
• Inspect, list and stop executions
• MCP resources for workflows and executions, such as n8n://workflows/list
• Webhook calls authenticated automatically with Basic Auth from environment variables
• Works with n8n cloud or self-hosted instances via the public REST API
• Available on npm, from source and on Docker Hub; MIT-licensed

n8n MCP Server tools

The tools fall into two groups:

• Workflow management: workflow_list, workflow_get, workflow_create, workflow_update, workflow_delete, workflow_activate and workflow_deactivate.
• Execution management: execution_run runs a workflow via the API, run_webhook triggers a webhook workflow by name (it calls <n8n-url>/webhook/<workflowName>), and execution_get, execution_list and execution_stop inspect or stop runs.

Resources expose the same data for reading: n8n://workflows/list, n8n://workflow/{id}, n8n://executions/{workflowId} and n8n://execution/{id}.

Use cases of n8n MCP Server

• Workflow inventory: "List all my n8n workflows and tell me which ones are inactive."
• Building from chat: "Create a workflow that posts new form submissions to Slack, but leave it inactive."
• Triggering automations: "Run the hello-world webhook workflow with the prompt 'Hello from AI assistant!'"
• Debugging: "Show the last five failed executions of the invoice-sync workflow and what went wrong."
• Operations: "Stop the execution that has been running for over an hour, then deactivate that workflow."

n8n MCP Server vs alternatives

n8n now ships its own MCP features. The MCP Server Trigger node turns a single n8n workflow into an MCP server whose tools are n8n tool nodes, over SSE or Streamable HTTP. Instance-level MCP access lets an owner or admin expose selected workflows to MCP clients from n8n's settings. Choose this community n8n MCP server when you want an agent to manage workflows themselves (create, edit, activate, delete) through the REST API from a local stdio server. Other community n8n MCP projects exist with different tool sets.

Troubleshooting n8n MCP Server

• Authentication or 404 errors: check that N8N_API_URL includes /api/v1 and that the API key is valid and has the needed permissions.
• Client can't start the server: run npm run build first, and use the absolute path to build/index.js with the correct separators (double backslashes on Windows).
• Webhook calls fail: run_webhook uses Basic Auth. Set N8N_WEBHOOK_USERNAME and N8N_WEBHOOK_PASSWORD, and enable Basic Authentication on the webhook node.
• Running an old version: update with npm install -g @leonardsellem/n8n-mcp-server@latest or docker pull leonardsellem/n8n-mcp-server:latest, then restart the server.
• Need more detail: set DEBUG=true to enable debug logging.