| name | n8n-import |
| description | Import workflows from apps/automation/workflows/ into the local n8n instance. Use when the user asks to import, push, load, or sync workflow JSON files to the local n8n. |
n8n-import
Reads every apps/automation/workflows/<slug>/workflow.json and creates or updates the matching workflow on the local n8n instance. Matching is by workflow name.
Preconditions
- n8n is running locally.
apps/automation/.env has N8N_API_KEY set.
Steps
-
Pre-flight checks:
grep -E '^N8N_API_KEY=.+' apps/automation/.env >/dev/null || echo 'MISSING N8N_API_KEY'
curl -sf http://localhost:5678/healthz >/dev/null || echo 'n8n not reachable'
-
Run the import:
pnpm --filter automation workflows:import
-
Report the summary to the user (created / updated / failed counts).
Behavior
- Match by name: if a workflow with the same
name already exists on the instance, it's updated in place via PUT /api/v1/workflows/{id}. The instance-side id and any activations are preserved.
- Imported inactive: the
active field is stripped on export, so nothing is auto-activated on import. The user activates workflows manually in the UI.
- Credentials: dangling credential references are warned per-node. Recreate the credentials in the n8n UI to clear the warning — secrets are never in the JSON.
Sanitization
Only whitelisted fields (name, nodes, connections, settings, staticData) are sent to the API. Tags aren't associated on import (n8n manages tag links via a separate endpoint; that's intentionally out of scope for now).
