node-red-manager

What This Skill Does

The node-red-manager skill provides a comprehensive command-line interface and API bridge for managing Node-RED instances. It allows users to automate flow deployments, manage installed nodes, and perform system-level diagnostics directly through the OpenClaw AI agent. By centralizing management tasks—ranging from flow lifecycle management (list, deploy, update, delete) to runtime context manipulation and backup automation—this skill eliminates the need for manual browser-based dashboard interaction. It is designed for seamless integration with existing Docker infrastructure, specifically tailored for the mema-node-red service.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your OpenClaw environment, execute the following command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/1999azzar/node-red-manager. Once installed, navigate to the deployments/node-red directory. Copy the .env.example file to .env and configure your NODE_RED_URL, NODE_RED_USERNAME, and NODE_RED_PASSWORD. The script handles all necessary dependency installations upon the first execution, ensuring that the environment is fully provisioned before you attempt to manage your flows.

Use Cases

This skill is perfect for DevOps engineers and automation architects who need to synchronize Node-RED flows across multiple environments without manual intervention. Common use cases include: 1) Automated CI/CD pipelines where flows are deployed directly from a version-controlled repository to the runtime. 2) Routine maintenance tasks, such as clearing context data or toggling specific nodes during a troubleshooting session. 3) Disaster recovery, utilizing the built-in backup and restore functionality to ensure flow integrity. 4) System monitoring, where agents can trigger log analysis or inspect diagnostic data to proactively identify bottleneck issues.

Example Prompts

1. "Deploy the flow defined in assets/flows/watchdog.json to my Node-RED instance and check its runtime state."
2. "I'm getting errors in my flows; can you pull the last 100 lines of logs from the mema-node-red container and list all currently enabled nodes?"
3. "Back up all current Node-RED flows to a local file and then update the global 'config' context variable with the new JSON configuration I've provided."

Tips & Limitations

• Always verify your .env credentials before running commands, as authentication errors will cause the scripts to fail silently or return 401 statuses.
• When performing batch updates, use the scripts/nr backup command first to ensure you have a rollback point.
• Note that context manipulation is case-sensitive and expects valid JSON strings; ensure complex objects are properly escaped.
• The script requires direct access to the Node-RED Admin API; ensure your firewall or reverse proxy settings permit traffic from the agent's host machine.