n8n Public REST API

Use this skill when you need to drive n8n programmatically. It covers the same core actions you use in the UI: workflows, executions, tags, credentials, projects, and more.

Availability

• The public API is unavailable during the free trial.
• Upgrade your plan to enable API access.

Configuration

Recommended environment variables (or store in .n8n-api-config):

export N8N_API_BASE_URL=""  # or 
export N8N_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Create the API key in: n8n Settings → n8n API → Create an API key.

Auth header

All requests require this header:

X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY

Playground

The API playground is only available on self-hosted n8n and operates on real data. For safe experiments, use a test workflow or a separate test instance.

Quick actions

Workflows: list

curl -s -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/workflows" \
  | jq '.data[] | {id, name, active}'

Workflows: details

curl -s -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/workflows/{id}"

Workflows: activate or deactivate

# Activate (publish)
curl -s -X POST -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"versionId":"","name":"","description":""}' \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/workflows/{id}/activate"

# Deactivate
curl -s -X POST -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/workflows/{id}/deactivate"

Webhook trigger

# Production webhook
curl -s -X POST "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/../webhook/{webhook-path}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"key":"value"}'

# Test webhook
curl -s -X POST "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/../webhook-test/{webhook-path}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"key":"value"}'

Executions: list

# Recent executions
curl -s -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/executions?limit=10" \
  | jq '.data[] | {id, workflowId, status, startedAt}'

# Failed only
curl -s -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/executions?status=error&limit=5"

Executions: retry

curl -s -X POST -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"loadWorkflow":true}' \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/executions/{id}/retry"

Common flows

Health check summary

Count active workflows and recent failures:

ACTIVE=$(curl -s -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/workflows?active=true" | jq '.data | length')

FAILED=$(curl -s -H "X-N8N-API-KEY: $N8N_API_KEY" \
  "$N8N_API_BASE_URL/executions?status=error&limit=100" \
  | jq '[.data[] | select(.startedAt > (now - 86400 | todate))] | length')

echo "Active workflows: $ACTIVE | Failed (24h): $FAILED"

Debug a failed run

List failed executions to get the execution ID.

Fetch execution details and identify the failing node.

Review node parameters and input data.

Suggest a fix based on the error message.

Endpoint index

See assets/n8n-api.endpoints.md for the full list of endpoints.

REST basics (optional)

If you want a refresher, these are commonly recommended:

• KnowledgeOwl: working with APIs (intro)
• IBM Cloud Learn Hub: what is an API / REST API
• MDN: overview of HTTP

Notes and tips

• The n8n API node can call the public API from inside workflows.
• Webhook URLs are not the same as API URLs and do not use the API key header.
• Execution records may be pruned based on instance retention settings.