️ Adding the n8n Server in VS Code

Source: https://github.com/czlonkowski/n8n-mcp

Requirement:

• Install nodeJS, msi > https://nodejs.org/en/download
• Make sure you have configured your github account

<img width="656" height="164" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b6ed9d2c-703e-4e5e-a730-af9349885c07" />

• Add typical settings, unless you otherwise know

<img width="612" height="480" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5d8d64b7-bc1c-47fc-93d8-dee03c8c2676" /> <img width="614" height="483" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3c4d661d-28aa-4313-99c5-0e9ea57c1065" />

incl the PowerShell section, time to brew some 🍵

Install - Node Package Execute npx by

npm install -g npx

Step 1: Open Command Palette

Type >MCP in the command palette (search for VSC at the top)

Step 2: Add New Server

Click "Add New Server"

Step 3: Adding server

<img width="752" height="119" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/85ae9573-70f6-40f9-8ac8-8c6e8df2c8da" />

Step 4: NPM Package

<img width="751" height="250" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d5c24161-55d7-4756-93c9-d9d26383cd26" />

Step 5: Enter the package name n8n

<img width="757" height="125" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8398f7e7-e0f2-4885-87c6-842d8e77801e" /> <img width="765" height="150" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2425b8aa-ca99-4e41-835b-95f3729018ae" />

Step 6: give it a name:

<img width="755" height="116" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f192d4c9-e76d-46bc-b629-b6da0e162b4b" />

If you did it correctly, then you should see this sample configuration: <img width="1217" height="560" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/971c69a9-a024-46f8-b8cf-43a3141da83f" />

Configuring the settings for the server

We need to adjust this code to it. </br> 👉 (if you look at the source of the repo you will find there's a version that will attempt to create the flow directly to n8n, but it doesn't work very well yet, and you have to do more work, such as API key and having a paid account with n8n)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "n8n-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["n8n-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_MODE": "stdio",
        "LOG_LEVEL": "error",
        "DISABLE_CONSOLE_OUTPUT": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

At the end, it will look like so: -make sure you save the file

<img width="672" height="540" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e9cd3ad0-6758-4fc5-90e6-cb0d371b9109" />

If you did it correctly, you can now start the server by going to: >mcp List Servers -Select the n8n server just created -right click > Start

<img width="1193" height="320" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d73403b1-108e-4962-ae5c-75231a6757d3" /> <img width="768" height="133" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/96e0f0b7-c034-439b-8146-652c3ff2e328" /> <img width="771" height="196" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b6d474d2-39b3-4c2f-bbfc-03863fa575b7" />

If you did that correctly, then you can see the discovered tools from the repo.

<img width="1144" height="317" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/764c1a03-f3fb-4b8e-b8c8-f53f2c425a66" />

Create Instructions

<img width="1464" height="256" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9603852d-1b15-4d39-8c56-7a8d3730e2e6" />

New Instructions

<img width="784" height="145" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bac87320-d356-48cc-be47-da4716310ef0" /> <img width="763" height="94" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cc829675-90f7-451f-92bd-19d05ac54f74" /> <img width="767" height="95" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9536cd3b-8592-4684-97b7-d9d3e8d59094" />

Add this and save the file (you can customize this verbose too) <img width="1179" height="283" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0beac741-5b94-4422-94bd-15628c858c18" />

you have access to MCP server call `n8n-mcp`. This tool allows you to search through n8n documentation and workflows to create n8n workflows and nodes.
If a question is asked about n8n you should always use this tool to find the answer.

Running your first prompt

I'm using this as sample:

create a n8n workflow that will start manually and it will read emails from outlook, setup an IF conditional if emails then send notfications via gotify

Best GPT agents: GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 (beyond this is overkill, after all, the info will not come from them but the MCP)

It will ask you to Allow the conversation

<img width="320" height="165" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5b633d36-408b-4dcd-ae69-fb8a6b1092e7" /> </br>

<img width="378" height="737" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0a07aa9b-1939-4ae9-9f3c-f87cca122bd4" />

If you did everything correctly, you should now see the MCP that was run and some further prompts in the show more

<img width="1589" height="944" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/459a5623-0523-409a-bf2d-2751802c3885" />

👉 In some cases, you will find the code in the middle of the context

Now you can copy the JSON file and drop it in n8n canvas

<img width="1109" height="431" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/74c284fb-48de-48a1-947b-a7e83df0bbaa" /> You're done! 🎉

👉 The red Warnings ❌ here indicate that you need to create credentials, obviously.

<img width="682" height="469" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/52879f00-ecf8-4d11-8834-5eec4a01b6ab" />