Quickstart

From zero to active workflow in under 3 minutes.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code installed (download)
• An n8n instance — either n8n Cloud (free trial) or a self-hosted instance with the public API enabled
• An n8n API key — create one at <your-n8n-url>/settings/api

Step 1 — Install the plugin (one-time)

Open Claude Code anywhere and run:

/plugin marketplace add HustleDanie/n8n-claude-kit
/plugin install n8n-claude-kit

That's it for the global setup. No credential prompts. The plugin registers:

• 7 n8n skills
• 3 subagents (n8n-workflow-builder, n8n-workflow-validator, n8n-workflow-deployer)
• The /n8n-init slash command

Step 2 — Bootstrap your first project

mkdir hello-n8n
cd hello-n8n
claude

Inside Claude Code:

/n8n-init

Answer the three prompts:

1. Project description — 1-2 sentences. Example: "Send me a Telegram message whenever a new row is added to my Airtable contacts table."
2. n8n URL — e.g., https://yourname.app.n8n.cloud
3. n8n API key — paste it (it won't be echoed back)

After a few seconds, the command will have written:

• ./CLAUDE.md
• ./.mcp.json
• ./.claude/settings.json
• ./.gitignore

Then it enters plan mode.

Step 3 — Describe the workflow

In plan mode, describe what you want in a sentence or two. The n8n-workflow-builder subagent will:

1. Search for relevant n8n nodes
2. Pull real schemas
3. Validate each node config
4. Propose a plan

Fine-tune the plan with the agent. When you're happy, approve it.

Step 4 — Build and activate

The agent builds the workflow via n8n-mcp, validates it end-to-end, and activates it in your n8n instance. It'll give you a link like https://yourname.app.n8n.cloud/workflow/abc123 — open it to see the workflow live.

Trigger a test run from the n8n UI or ask the agent to check n8n_executions for you.

What just happened

In under 3 minutes you:

• Installed a plugin once (reusable for every future project)
• Scaffolded a new project folder with all the pieces Claude Code needs to talk to your n8n instance
• Went from "I have an idea" to "workflow is active" without hand-writing any n8n JSON or MCP config

Next up: read The /n8n-init command for details on what the bootstrap actually writes, or Subagents for when each agent kicks in.