n8n Public REST API

Use the public /api/v1 API in a version-aware, least-privilege way. This skill was validated against stable n8n 2.36.8 on 2026-08-29, but the target instance's discovery response and OpenAPI document are authoritative.

Required inputs

Establish these before calling the API:

• the instance base URL, including any configured path prefix and excluding a trailing slash
• an API key available through an environment variable or secret manager
• the intended operation and exact target resource
• explicit authorization for any mutation, especially publish, retry, stop, delete, package, settings, or source-control operations

Do not ask the user to paste an API key into chat. Do not print, log, commit, or persist the key. If no key is available, explain how to create one in Settings > n8n API and let the user place it in the environment.

Use N8N_BASE_URL and N8N_API_KEY in examples. If the user's environment already uses N8N_HOST, preserve it rather than renaming configuration unnecessarily.

Workflow