n8n-api

What This Skill Does

The n8n-api skill empowers your OpenClaw agent to programmatically manage, monitor, and interact with n8n workflows. By integrating directly with the n8n REST API, it allows the agent to act as a system operator for your automation infrastructure. Whether you are using self-hosted n8n instances or the cloud-based service, this skill provides granular control over workflow lifecycle management—enabling the agent to list active workflows, trigger webhooks, retry failed executions, and extract performance metrics for troubleshooting. It essentially acts as a remote control for your automation backbone.

Installation

To install this skill, run the following command in your terminal: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/codedao12/n8n-api

Post-installation, ensure you have configured your environment variables to allow the agent to authenticate with your instance. You will need to export your base API URL and your generated API key:

• export N8N_API_BASE_URL="https://your-instance.app.n8n.cloud/api/v1"
• export N8N_API_KEY="your-api-key-here" These can be placed in your .n8n-api-config file for persistent access.

Use Cases

• Proactive Monitoring: Use the agent to run health checks on your automation cluster, identifying failed executions within the last 24 hours.
• Lifecycle Management: Automate the activation or deactivation of specific workflows during maintenance windows or system updates.
• Dynamic Webhook Triggering: Programmatically invoke production or test webhooks to simulate events or kick off automated processes based on external data analysis.
• Automated Remediation: Configure the agent to monitor for errors and automatically trigger a retry of failed executions if they meet specific criteria.

Example Prompts

1. "Check the health of my n8n instance and report how many workflows are active and if any have failed in the last day."
2. "Find the workflow named 'Lead Generation' and deactivate it immediately for maintenance."
3. "Retry the last 5 failed executions for the workflow with ID 142."

Tips & Limitations

• Permissions: Ensure your generated API key has sufficient scope to perform the tasks requested.
• Safety: The API playground operates on live data; for testing destructive actions like mass deletions or activating experimental workflows, use a dedicated test instance rather than production.
• Plan Limits: Remember that the n8n public API is not available on the free tier; an upgrade to a paid plan is required for the agent to interface with your workflows successfully.
• Security: Treat your API keys as sensitive credentials. Avoid hardcoding them in scripts and prefer using secret management tools or protected environment variables.