n8n-cli-smoke

name	n8n-cli-smoke
description	Run smoke tests against n8n webhook workflows. Sends known-good payloads and verifies expected responses. Use when promoting to production, after major changes, or as a daily reliability check.
user_invocable	true

/n8n-cli-smoke — n8n Smoke Test Suite

Build and run a smoke-test suite that verifies critical n8n workflows are responding correctly.

Procedure

Mode 1: Build the suite

1. Ask the user which workflows to include:

   • "Which workflows should be in your smoke suite?" — usually 5-15 critical webhook workflows
   • Or "smoke-test all workflows tagged 'production'" → list and confirm

2. For each workflow:

   • Confirm it's webhook-triggered (smoke tests need an entry point we can hit)
   • Get a known-good payload (use existing /n8n-cli-test-fixtures output, or ask the user to paste one)
   • Define the expected response (HTTP 200 + maybe specific fields)
   • Define a max latency (e.g. should respond within 5s)

3. Save the suite to tests/smoke.yml:

   suite: production-smoke
   profile: cloud  # which n8n-cli profile to target
   
   tests:
     - name: order-webhook
       workflow_id: abc123
       payload_file: tests/smoke/payloads/order-webhook.json
       expect:
         status: 200
         max_latency_ms: 5000
         body_contains: ["ok", "order_id"]
       on_failure: alert  # alert | continue | abort
   
     - name: stripe-event
       workflow_id: def456
       payload_file: tests/smoke/payloads/stripe-event.json
       expect:
         status: 200
         max_latency_ms: 10000
       on_failure: alert
   

4. Save the payloads to tests/smoke/payloads/

5. Generate a runner script (tests/smoke/run.sh) that reads the YAML, hits each webhook, and reports results

Mode 2: Run the suite

1. Read tests/smoke.yml
2. For each test:
   • Resolve the workflow ID
   • Load the payload
   • Time the request
   • n8n-cli wh test <id> --data "$(cat payload.json)"
   • Check the response status and latency against the expectation
   • Print result: ✓ order-webhook 200 OK 342ms or ✗ stripe-event TIMEOUT >10000ms
3. At the end, print a summary:

   Smoke suite: production-smoke
   Profile: cloud
   Started: 2026-04-06 12:34:56
   Duration: 4.2s
   
   Results: 5 passed, 1 failed
   Failed: stripe-event (TIMEOUT)
   
   Run /n8n-cli-debug to investigate stripe-event.
   

4. Exit code: 0 if all pass, 1 if any failed (so it can run in CI)

Output format

• During run: live progress per test
• At end: summary table + recommended next action

Tips

• Smoke tests are about liveness, not correctness. They prove the workflow responds — not that the result is right. Pair with end-to-end integration tests if you need correctness checks.
• Run smoke tests after every workflow update (use it as a deploy gate)
• Run smoke tests as a scheduled n8n workflow itself (very meta — uses /n8n-cli-meta-monitor)
• Keep payloads small and idempotent. Smoke tests shouldn't create real orders, send real emails, or charge real cards. Use sandbox/test endpoints whenever possible.
• For workflows that have side effects, configure the workflow to detect a _smoke_test: true flag in the payload and short-circuit before the side effect.
• For instances with both cloud and self-hosted, run two smoke suites (one per profile) and report side-by-side.

Companion: continuous smoke

• Schedule smoke tests via cron, post results to Slack
• Hook up smoke results to a status page (statuspage.io, etc.)
• Use smoke results as a deploy gate in your CI/CD pipeline