Skills CLI (Tools for AI agents)

The Skills CLI (@n8n-as-code/skills) provides command-line tools specifically designed for AI coding assistants and developers working with n8n workflows. It allows you to search, retrieve, and list n8n node schemas programmatically.

🎯 Purpose

The Skills CLI is designed to:

• Provide structured data about n8n nodes for AI coding assistants
• Enable search capabilities for finding specific nodes by name or description
• Generate JSON schemas that can be used for code completion and validation
• Support AI context generation for better workflow suggestions
• Access community workflows - Search and download from 7000+ real-world workflows

📦 Installation

The Skills CLI is available as an npm package and can be run directly with npx:

# Run with n8nac-skills (if installed globally)
n8nac-skills <command>

# Or run directly with npx
npx @n8n-as-code/skills <command>

# Or install globally
npm install -g @n8n-as-code/skills

Note: When you run update-ai from the main @n8n-as-code/cli, ensure @n8n-as-code/skills is available to the project (install locally with npm install --save-dev @n8n-as-code/skills, install globally, or use npx). The VS Code extension is the only caller that generates local executable shims (n8nac, n8nac-skills) in your project; the CLI will not create these shims to avoid unexpected file creation.

🛠️ Available Commands

1. Search Nodes

Skills (AI Tools)

The Skills package (@n8n-as-code/skills) provides command-line tools specifically designed for AI coding assistants and developers working with n8n workflows. It allows you to search, retrieve, and list n8n node schemas programmatically.

🛠 Purpose

This package provides a dedicated CLI (n8nac-skills) and programmatic tools designed to:

🚀 Installation

npm install @n8n-as-code/skills

📖 CLI Usage

search <query> - 🚀 Deep Unified Search (PRIMARY TOOL)

# Search nodes, docs, and tutorials
n8nac-skills search "how to generate images"
n8nac-skills search "google sheets"

# Filter by type
n8nac-skills search "authentication" --type documentation
n8nac-skills search "database" --type node

# Filter by category
n8nac-skills search "ai" --category advanced-ai

get <nodeName> - 📚 Complete Node Info

Get full node information: schema + documentation + examples.

n8nac-skills get googleSheets
n8nac-skills get httpRequest

schema <nodeName> - ⚡ Quick Parameter Reference

n8nac-skills schema googleSheets
# Returns only properties and required fields

docs <title> - 📖 Read Documentation

# Read a specific page
n8nac-skills docs "Google Gemini"
n8nac-skills docs "Expressions"

# List categories or stats
n8nac-skills docs --list

guides [query] - 🎯 Find Guides

n8nac-skills guides "email automation"
n8nac-skills guides "ai workflow"
n8nac-skills guides --list

workflows - 🌐 Search & Download Community Workflows

n8nac-skills workflows search "slack notification"
n8nac-skills workflows search "AI chatbot telegram"
n8nac-skills workflows search "invoice processing" --limit 20
n8nac-skills workflows search "google sheets" --json

n8nac-skills workflows info 916
n8nac-skills workflows install 916
n8nac-skills workflows install 4365 --output my-chatbot.json
n8nac-skills workflows install 8088 --force

n8nac-skills workflows list
n8nac-skills workflows list --limit 50

related <query> - 🔗 Discover Resources

n8nac-skills related googleSheets
# Returns: Google Drive, Excel, Airtable, related docs

n8nac-skills related "ai agents"
# Returns: AI-related concepts, nodes, examples

list - 📋 List Resources

# Summary of nodes and docs
n8nac-skills list

# List all node names
n8nac-skills list --nodes

# List all doc categories
n8nac-skills list --docs

validate <file> - ✅ Validate Workflows

n8nac-skills validate workflow.json
n8nac-skills validate workflow.json --strict

update-ai - 🤖 Update AI Context

Update AI Context (AGENTS.md, rule files, snippets).

n8nac-skills update-ai
n8nac-skills update-ai --version 1.70.0

📊 Output Format

All commands output JSON for easy parsing by scripts and AI tools:

Search Output Example

[
  {
    "name": "httpRequest",
    "displayName": "HTTP Request",
    "description": "Makes an HTTP request to a specified URL",
    "category": "Sync"
  },
  {
    "name": "httpBin",
    "displayName": "HTTP Bin",
    "description": "Test HTTP requests",
    "category": "Sync"
  }
]

Get Schema Output Example

{
  "name": "httpRequest",
  "displayName": "HTTP Request",
  "description": "Makes an HTTP request to a specified URL",
  "properties": [
    {
      "name": "url",
      "type": "string",
      "required": true,
      "description": "The URL to make the request to"
    },
    {
      "name": "method",
      "type": "string",
      "required": true,
      "default": "GET",
      "description": "HTTP method to use"
    }
  ]
}

🔧 Integration with AI Assistants

The Skills CLI is designed to be used by AI coding assistants to:

1. Understand n8n node structure - Get detailed schemas for accurate code generation
2. Provide context-aware suggestions - Search for relevant nodes based on user intent
3. Validate workflow JSON - Use schemas to validate generated workflow structures

Example AI Integration Workflow

# AI Assistant workflow for generating n8n workflow code
1. User asks: "Create a workflow that reads from Google Sheets"
2. AI runs: npx @n8n-as-code/skills search "google sheets"
3. AI gets node schemas: npx @n8n-as-code/skills get googleSheets
4. AI generates accurate JSON with proper parameters

📁 Data Source

The Skills CLI uses a pre-generated index of n8n nodes from the official n8n source code. The data is stored in dist/assets/ (generated during build):

• n8n-knowledge-index.json: Unified FlexSearch index for the search command.
• n8n-nodes-technical.json: Detailed technical schemas for the get command.
• n8n-docs-complete.json: Full documentation content.

This includes:

• All sync n8n nodes
• Community nodes (when available)
• Node properties and parameters
• Type definitions and validation rules

🔄 Related Tools

AI Context Generation

The main CLI (@n8n-as-code/cli) includes an update-ai command (with init-ai kept as an alias) that generates comprehensive context files for AI assistants:

n8nac update-ai

This command creates:

• .vscode/n8n.code-snippets - Code snippets generated from n8n-nodes-index.json
• n8n-nodes-index.json - Index of all available nodes
• Documentation files for AI context

VS Code Extension

For visual editing with git-like sync controls, use the VS Code Extension.

Main CLI

For workflow management and automation, use the Main CLI.

🚀 Quick Start

1. Search for nodes you need:

   npx @n8n-as-code/skills search "your query"

2. Get detailed schema for a specific node:

   npx @n8n-as-code/skills get nodeName

3. List all available nodes:

   npx @n8n-as-code/skills list

📖 Next Steps

• Learn about the Main CLI for workflow management
• Explore the VS Code Extension for visual editing
• Check the Contribution Guide for development details

🆘 Troubleshooting

Command not found:

# Make sure you're using the correct package name
npx @n8n-as-code/skills --help

Node not found:

# Check available nodes first
npx @n8n-as-code/skills list | grep "your-node"

JSON parsing issues:

# Pipe output to jq for pretty printing
npx @n8n-as-code/skills search "http" | jq .

For more help, check the Troubleshooting guide or open an issue.