skills

Use when working with n8n workflows in any capacity. The always-on protocol for the n8n-skills plugin, loaded by the SessionStart hook every session. Routes to the right skill, summarizes every n8n MCP tool (closing the deferred-description gap), and lists the cross-cutting rules.

Use when building or editing any AI feature in n8n: AI Agents, Text Classifier, Information Extractor, Sentiment Analysis, Summarization Chain, Basic LLM Chain, embeddings, vector stores, single one-shot LLM calls, or AI media generation (image / audio / video) via the native LangChain provider nodes. Triggers on any `@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.*` node, "agent", "chat assistant", "LLM with tools", "tool calling", "fromAi", "system prompt", "memory window", "structured output", "outputParser", "function calling", "RAG", "vector store", "embeddings", "classify with AI", "extract fields with LLM", "sentiment analysis", "summarize with LLM", "single LLM call", chat triggers with files, AI image / video / audio generation, or any multi-turn or one-shot LLM behavior.

Use when handling files, images, attachments, or binary data in n8n, OR when an AI agent needs to take a user-uploaded file as tool input or return a generated file. For Data Tables (schemas, dedup, persistent state), see the separate n8n-data-tables-official skill. Triggers on "file", "image", "PDF", "attachment", "binary", "upload", "download", chat trigger with files, agent tool that needs a file, vision/multimodal, or any handling of non-JSON file data.

Use when the user reaches for a Code node, mentions writing JavaScript or Python in n8n, or any custom logic comes up in workflow design. Triggers on "Code node", "Code", "JavaScript", "Python", "custom logic", "transform data", "$input", "$json transformation", "loop in code", "write a function", or any time the obvious answer seems to be "just put it in code."

Use when handling any auth, API keys, tokens, OAuth, bearer tokens, basic auth, or secret values in n8n workflows. Triggers on "API key", "token", "bearer", "OAuth", "secret", "auth", "credentials", "Authorization header", "x-api-key", or any node configuration that mentions a third-party service.

Use when working with n8n's built-in Data Tables, designing schemas, inserting/updating/upserting rows, deduping, or querying. Triggers on "Data Table", "data table", `n8n-nodes-base.dataTable`, "dedup", "idempotency", "lookup", "persistent state", "store across executions", or any schema design discussion inside n8n.

Use when an n8n workflow isn't working, errors appear, results don't match what was expected, or the user says "this isn't working." Triggers on errors, unexpected output, "it's not working", "why is this happening", "the workflow stopped", failure investigation, or any debugging context.

Use when building any webhook-triggered workflow, scheduled/production-bound workflow, wiring a per-node error output, or any workflow where silent failure would drop user-visible work. Triggers on "webhook", "respond to webhook", "API", "production", "error", "failure", "5xx", "try/catch", "error workflow", "onError", "continueErrorOutput", "error branch", "node error output", "output(1)", "main[1]", "scheduled", or any workflow that runs unattended.

Use when writing or reviewing n8n expressions (`{{...}}` syntax), `$json` / `$node` references, Luxon date code, or expression errors. Triggers on `{{}}`, `$json`, `$node`, `$input`, `DateTime`, `Luxon`, "expression error", "evaluating", "format date", "transform field", or any node-parameter assignment.

Use when you want to expose an n8n workflow as a tool the coding agent can call. Two cases. (1) Wrap n8n API capabilities the MCP doesn't natively expose: folder CRUD, tag rename/delete, instance metadata, credential creation. (2) Expose a general-purpose workflow as an agent tool: a workflow that calls a third-party API, runs business logic, or does any task you want the agent to invoke. Triggers on "expose as MCP tool", "build a tool for my agent", "I need to know X" where X isn't an MCP tool, "create folder", "rename tag", or any capability gap.

Use when working with multi-item data, batches, paginated APIs, rate-limited APIs, fan-out across multiple branches, anything that needs to "do this for each", or any time the user mentions looping, iterating, batching, paging, parallelism, or "loop over items". Triggers on "loop", "iterate", "for each", "batch", "page through", "paginate", "rate limit", "process all", "fan-out", "parallel branches", "concurrency", or any node that should run once vs once-per-item.

Use when configuring any n8n node: HTTP, webhooks, database, comms (Slack/Gmail/Discord), AI, triggers, Merge, anything. Triggers on any node-builder call (`node(...)`, `trigger(...)`, `tool(...)`, `memory(...)`, `languageModel(...)`, `ifElse(...)`, `merge(...)`, etc.), configuring a parameter, `useDataOfInput`, `numberOfInputs`, fan-in convergence, or any node-specific debugging.

Use when building anything multi-step, anything that looks repeatable, anything the user mentions reusing, or any workflow with more than ~10 nodes. Triggers on "reuse", "I do this in another workflow", "extract", "modular", "shared logic", "subworkflow", multi-step builds, or any task that mentions logic the user has built before.

Use when starting, designing, organizing, finishing, or shipping an n8n workflow. Covers visual layout (sticky notes), descriptions that capture the *why*, node names, validation, testing, folders/projects, and publishing. Triggers on create_workflow_from_code, update_workflow, validate_workflow, publish_workflow, archive_workflow, "design", "lay out", "organize", "structure", "sticky", "describe this workflow", "ship", "deploy", "publish", "name this workflow", or any folder/project organization request.