Reading a workflow, changing it, running it and then reading the execution that came out are four separate tools here, which is what makes it useful for debugging rather than just triggering. The one deliberate limit is credentials: you can see which ones exist, never what is in them.
An MCP server that talks to your own n8n instance over its REST API. Workflows can be listed, read, created, updated, activated and run; executions can be inspected and retried.
- list_workflows, get_workflow and search_workflows to find a workflow by status, tag or name
- create_workflow, update_workflow and delete_workflow to change a workflow from its JSON
- activate_workflow and deactivate_workflow to switch one on or off
- execute_workflow to run one with input data
- get_executions, get_execution, retry_execution and delete_execution for history and reruns
- get_workflow_webhooks for a workflow's webhook URLs
- get_tags, create_tag, update_tag and delete_tag for organising workflows
- get_credentials, which returns credential names only and never their contents
An n8n instance with the API enabled and an API key generated under Settings → API, supplied as N8N_URL and N8N_API_KEY. Node.js 18 or higher. Cloud instances work the same way, with the subdomain URL. The server can do whatever the key can, so a restricted key is worth the extra minute.
One command plus a key — npm install -g n8n-mcp-server, then supply credentials