Workflow automation · API

n8n Public API

n8n

Manage workflow resources through the public REST API.

Official documentation Download development spec

The public API is unavailable during the free trial. Choose an eligible Cloud plan or self-hosted edition and verify the installed version before implementation.

N8N / DEVELOPER FIELD GUIDE

Choose an interface. Define a verifiable result.

Company or project context, ten technical entry points and a practical analysis of every reference.

2026-10-08 · Integration not tested

Company / project overview

Original summary of official company or project statements; use the source for the full original page.

n8n · About
Project	n8n presents itself as a fair-code workflow automation platform combining visual workflows with custom code.
Deployment	The project supports self-hosted and cloud deployment options.
API boundary	The public REST API administers supported resources; webhook-driven business workflows are a separate interface choice.

Complete official About page ↗

About reference — TA analysis
Audience	Buyers, partners and product owners shortlisting an AI provider.
Our assessment	Use positioning and company history for initial fit. Obtain project-specific deployment, support and commercial terms separately.

Official sources reviewed; no live API, inference or benchmark was run. Expected results are proposed internal contracts.

Top 10 technical entry points

Ten documented technical entry points selected by developer task; not ten separate SDKs or an official ranking.

Choose by the work you need to complete
Interface	Purpose and audience
01 · API authenticationAPI / SDK / developer guide	Authenticate public API calls using API keys.API integrators
02 · API paginationAPI / SDK / developer guide	Traverse large resource lists.Synchronization developers
03 · Endpoint referenceAPI / SDK / developer guide	Choose supported public API operations.Backend engineers
04 · n8n public API CLIAPI / SDK / developer guide	Use a command-line wrapper around public API tasks.CI automation teams
05 · Webhook nodeAPI / SDK / developer guide	Start workflow processing from an HTTP request.Workflow entrypoint designers
06 · Respond to WebhookAPI / SDK / developer guide	Control the HTTP response returned by a workflow.API workflow developers
07 · HTTP Request nodeAPI / SDK / developer guide	Call external HTTP services from a workflow.Service integration teams
08 · Error handlingAPI / SDK / developer guide	Handle failed workflow execution explicitly.Reliability engineers
09 · Queue modeAPI / SDK / developer guide	Separate execution across queued workers.Self-hosted operations teams
10 · Workflow data structureAPI / SDK / developer guide	Map workflow items into the expected item structure.Data transformation developers

Reference analysis

Capabilities summarize official documentation. Constraints and proposed tests are our engineering assessment.

API / SDK / developer guide

API authentication

API authentication · TA
Target audience	API integrators
Documented capability	Authenticate public API calls using API keys.
Input → output	Key-bearing request → authorized resource operation.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Free-trial access is excluded; scopes depend on edition.
Our suggested validation	Test expired keys and denied actions without logging secrets.

Official reference · API authentication ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

API pagination

API pagination · TA
Target audience	Synchronization developers
Documented capability	Traverse large resource lists.
Input → output	List request and cursor → page and next cursor.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	One page is not necessarily the full resource inventory.
Our suggested validation	Check empty, single-page and multi-page results without duplicates.

Official reference · API pagination ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

Endpoint reference

Endpoint reference · TA
Target audience	Backend engineers
Documented capability	Choose supported public API operations.
Input → output	Endpoint-specific request → resource result.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Do not rely on undocumented editor-internal endpoints.
Our suggested validation	Validate operation availability and response schema against pinned version.

Official reference · Endpoint reference ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

n8n public API CLI

n8n public API CLI · TA
Target audience	CI automation teams
Documented capability	Use a command-line wrapper around public API tasks.
Input → output	Command arguments → API-backed operation result.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	API credentials and access rules still apply.
Our suggested validation	Check target instance and exit status before accepting CI success.

Official reference · n8n public API CLI ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

Webhook node

Webhook node · TA
Target audience	Workflow entrypoint designers
Documented capability	Start workflow processing from an HTTP request.
Input → output	Webhook request → workflow items and response.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Test and production webhook URLs serve different lifecycle roles.
Our suggested validation	Check correct URL, authentication and duplicate-event policy.

Official reference · Webhook node ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

Respond to Webhook

Respond to Webhook · TA
Target audience	API workflow developers
Documented capability	Control the HTTP response returned by a workflow.
Input → output	Workflow state → configured status and response body.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	An early HTTP acknowledgement does not certify downstream completion.
Our suggested validation	Test completed, pending and error response contracts.

Official reference · Respond to Webhook ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

HTTP Request node

HTTP Request node · TA
Target audience	Service integration teams
Documented capability	Call external HTTP services from a workflow.
Input → output	Configured request and credentials → remote response.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Remote retries can duplicate side effects without idempotency.
Our suggested validation	Verify timeout, rate-limit and duplicate submission behavior.

Official reference · HTTP Request node ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

Error handling

Error handling · TA
Target audience	Reliability engineers
Documented capability	Handle failed workflow execution explicitly.
Input → output	Execution error → error workflow or controlled failure path.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Continuing after error must not mislabel the overall job successful.
Our suggested validation	Inject a failed dependency and inspect surfaced execution state.

Official reference · Error handling ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

Queue mode

Queue mode · TA
Target audience	Self-hosted operations teams
Documented capability	Separate execution across queued workers.
Input → output	Accepted execution → queued worker processing.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Queue acceptance is not completion; shared infrastructure must be configured.
Our suggested validation	Test unavailable workers, retries and result visibility.

Official reference · Queue mode ↗

API / SDK / developer guide

Workflow data structure

Workflow data structure · TA
Target audience	Data transformation developers
Documented capability	Map workflow items into the expected item structure.
Input → output	Item arrays with JSON/binary data → downstream node inputs.
Execution environment	Pinned n8n instance; Cloud plan or self-hosted edition selected explicitly
Our decision constraint	Zero items and a single empty JSON item are different.
Our suggested validation	Test item counts, field types and binary references after transforms.

Official reference · Workflow data structure ↗

Public API overview

Public API overview · Supporting reference analysis
TA	Product and integration leads
Our validation advice	Check API availability for the selected plan and distinguish REST, CLI and webhooks.

Official reference · Public API overview ↗

04 / INPUT · EXPECTED OUTPUT · ACCEPTANCE

Expected results before implementation

Illustrative workflow execution receipt, not the native public API schema. No webhook, workflow, external API or deployment was run.

Illustrative contract · no API call or model execution · not measured provider output

Completed transformation

Expected behavior — illustrative, not executed
Input	Valid workflow item with required part fields.
Expected result	ok with execution ID and normalized output items.
Acceptance	Confirm terminal success and expected item count.

Filtered empty output

Expected behavior — illustrative, not executed
Input	All items fail a declared filter.
Expected result	ok with output_items: []; no external action.
Acceptance	Keep zero items distinct from an item with an empty object.

Accepted but queued

Expected behavior — illustrative, not executed
Input	Webhook acknowledges while worker execution is pending.
Expected result	pending with execution ID; no completed business outcome.
Acceptance	Only mark completed after the execution terminal state.

Dependency failed

Expected behavior — illustrative, not executed
Input	Remote service times out or rejects credentials.
Expected result	error/partial with failed node context and no false delivery claim.
Acceptance	Apply bounded retries and idempotency for side-effecting operations.

Map the expected result to your application

Map the actual SDK or service response into this proposed internal contract after integration. All IDs and values below are invented examples; no credentials or live requests are included.

Expected output JSON — illustrative, not measured · n8nAPI-expected-results.json

{
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "example": true,
  "provider": "n8n",
  "status": "ok",
  "input_id": "sample-001",
  "data": {
    "workflow_id": "example-workflow",
    "execution_id": "example-execution",
    "execution_status": "completed",
    "output_items": [
      {
        "part_id": "example-part",
        "route": "review"
      }
    ],
    "external_action_confirmed": false
  },
  "error": null,
  "verification": "illustrative-only;not-provider-response"
}

Download specification, example and acceptance plan

Engineering handoff — our proposed contract and gates
Result interpretation	Successful transport or execution does not establish model accuracy. Preserve valid empty results separately from operational failure.
Reproducibility	Record model, runtime, configuration and input identifiers; agree quality and latency criteria before representative tests. No measured performance is claimed.
Operation boundary	Illustrative workflow execution receipt, not the native public API schema. No webhook, workflow, external API or deployment was run.

Development assessment

RFQ intake orchestration

Development concept · integration not tested

Provider capabilities above are based on official documentation or repositories. The proposed product, inputs, deliverable and acceptance criteria below are our development assessment.

Small prototype

Test one documented operation with a small real sample after access is confirmed. This is a development judgment, not a delivery estimate.

Proposed inputs: A sample event, authorized systems and one defined workflow transition.
Proposed deliverable: A visible job state and audit trail for a single workflow.
Acceptance criterion: A retried event must not create duplicate work; an unavailable upstream must remain visibly pending or failed.
Dependencies: Runtime access, workflow permissions and a reviewed notification or write destination.

Integration condition

The public API is unavailable during the free trial. Choose an eligible Cloud plan or self-hosted edition and verify the installed version before implementation.

Development sequence

Confirm access to n8n Public API, license and the exact supported version.
Prepare the sample above and implement one documented operation for “RFQ intake orchestration”.
Normalize the result with source, time and explicit error state; keep the provider response for review.
Run the acceptance criterion before estimating rollout effort or committing a customer deliverable.

How to validate demand

Record product views, documentation clicks, specification downloads and contextual hub clicks. These are event counts, not unique people or completed integrations.

This feasibility assessment uses implementation conditions. No traffic-based rank or delivery-time promise is assigned.

n8n Public API

Choose an interface. Define a verifiable result.

Company / project overview

Top 10 technical entry points

Reference analysis

Public API overview

Expected results before implementation

Completed transformation

Filtered empty output

Accepted but queued

Dependency failed

Map the expected result to your application

RFQ intake orchestration

Integration condition

Development sequence

How to validate demand

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