n8n MCP

Overview

n8n MCP connects the world’s most popular open-source automation platform (n8n, 180k+ stars) to AI agents. Describe what you want automated in plain English, and your AI agent builds the complete n8n workflow — with proper nodes, connections, and configuration.

How It Works

1. Connect to n8n — Configure with your n8n instance URL and API key
2. Describe your workflow — Natural language automation requests
3. AI builds it — Agent creates the n8n workflow with proper nodes
4. Activate — Review and activate in n8n

Use Cases

• Email automation — Process emails, extract data, trigger actions
• Data pipelines — Move data between services on schedule
• Notification systems — Alert teams on specific events
• Report generation — Automated reports from multiple sources

Getting Started

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "n8n": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "n8n-mcp"],
      "env": { "N8N_API_URL": "http://localhost:5678", "N8N_API_KEY": "your-key" }
    }
  }
}

Example

User: "Create a workflow that monitors RSS for AI news and posts to Slack"

Agent → n8n MCP:
  - create_workflow with RSS Read → OpenAI Summarize → Slack Post nodes
  - Sets 1-hour schedule trigger

Result: Workflow created and activated.

Alternatives

• Activepieces — Alternative workflow platform with MCP support
• Composio — Managed integrations without workflow builder
• Zapier — Commercial workflow automation