n8n Workflow Toolkit

What Is the n8n Workflow Toolkit?

The n8n Workflow Toolkit is a free browser based workbench for examining an n8n workflow export. n8n stores a workflow as a single JSON file containing its nodes, their parameters, credentials references and the connections between them. That file is hard to read by eye and risky to share, because it often contains API keys, pinned test data and internal URLs. This toolkit takes that one file and runs it through seven separate tools: an analyzer, a validator, a flow graph, a privacy cleaner, a secret scanner, a version diff and a documentation generator. You get structure, safety and readable output without opening a text editor or writing a script.

Why Use It and Who It Is For

Automation teams accumulate workflows quickly, and nobody remembers what every node does three months later. The toolkit is built for the people who have to read, review and hand over those workflows.

• n8n developers who want instant statistics and a complexity score before a code review.
• Consultants and agencies who receive a client export and must check it for problems before importing it.
• Ops and security reviewers who need to confirm that no API key or token is about to be pasted into a ticket.
• Template authors who publish workflows and want clean, sanitized exports plus documentation.
• Teams migrating between n8n versions who need to compare an old export with a new one node by node.
• Anyone onboarding a colleague who needs a Markdown description of what a workflow actually does.

How This Tool Works

Export a workflow from n8n through the editor workflow menu, choose export to JSON, and paste the file into the input box or load it with Upload .json. The Sample button loads a small built in example - a webhook, an IF branch, a Postgres insert, an HTTP request and a respond node - so you can see every tab working before you trust it with your own data.

When you click Analyze Workflow the server parses the JSON and counts nodes by type, triggers, HTTP request nodes, AI nodes, database nodes, loop nodes and branches. It walks the connection graph to find the longest execution path and turns those inputs into a weighted complexity score, then flags structural problems. Validation checks for missing or duplicate node ids, missing or duplicate node names, connections that point at nodes which do not exist, malformed or unconfigured credentials, nodes with no parameters, unbalanced {{ }} expressions, deprecated node types and workflows with no trigger at all. Every issue carries a severity of error, warning or info.

The Visualize tab renders the same connection graph as an SVG you can pan and zoom, colour coded by node role: trigger, HTTP, AI, database, logic, respond and other. Cleaner rewrites the JSON with selected categories removed and returns a removal count for each. Credential Scanner walks every node parameter and credential reference, matching secret patterns such as OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Google and private key formats plus generic api key, token and password assignments, and masks the matched value in the report. Diff indexes the nodes of two exports and reports what was added, removed or changed. Docs writes Markdown from the structure, and Search looks inside node names, parameters, expressions, URLs and HTTP methods.

Key Features

• Node, trigger, HTTP, AI, database, loop and branch counts with a plain language summary.
• Longest execution path and a weighted complexity score.
• Validation report covering broken connections, duplicate ids and names, missing credentials, empty nodes, unbalanced expressions and deprecated node types.
• Interactive SVG flow graph with zoom in, zoom out, reset, drag to pan and hover highlighting.
• Six independent cleanup switches with a count of what was removed from each category.
• Secret scanner with severity levels of high, medium, low and info, and masked values.
• Side by side workflow diff with added, removed and changed nodes.
• Markdown documentation generator with copy and download buttons.
• Full text search across node names, parameters, expressions and URLs, with a 200 character query limit.
• Sample workflow built in, so the tool can be tried without exporting anything.
• No account, no history list - each run works on the text you submitted and nothing else.

How to Use This Tool

1. Paste the exported JSON into n8n Workflow Input, or click Upload .json, or click Paste to read from the clipboard. Use Sample to try it first.
2. Open the Analyze tab and click Analyze Workflow to get statistics, the complexity score, the validation issues and the graph data.
3. Open Visualize and drag to pan, use the zoom buttons or the mouse wheel to zoom, and hover a node to highlight its connections.
4. Open Cleaner, switch on the removals you want - credentials, pin data, execution data and notes, disabled nodes, empty properties or metadata - then click Clean Workflow and use Copy or Download.
5. Open Credential Scanner and click Scan for Secrets; review severity, type, node, path and the masked value for each finding.
6. Open Diff, put the original export in the left box and the modified one in the right, and click Compare Workflows.
7. Open Docs and click Generate Documentation, then Copy or Download .md.
8. Open Search, type up to 200 characters of text and click Search to see where it appears.

Limits and Rules

Each workflow submission is capped at 1,000,000 characters, which comfortably covers very large exports, and the diff endpoint applies that cap to both sides. Search queries are limited to 200 characters. Every endpoint is throttled to 30 requests per minute, so interactive work is unaffected while scripted floods are refused. Invalid JSON is rejected with a clear message rather than a crash. The text you submit is processed on the server to run the analysis and is not written to a database or a history list, but it does travel over the connection, so use the cleaner before you share an export and treat any workflow that contains live credentials as a secret. Do not upload workflows you are not allowed to examine, and do not use the scanner output as a substitute for proper secret management.

When to Use It and When Not To

Use it before importing a workflow you received from someone else, before publishing a template, before pasting an export into a public issue, when a workflow suddenly fails and you want a fast structural check, and when you need to explain a workflow to someone who has never opened n8n. It is also handy for confirming that a cleanup really removed the credentials you expected it to remove.

Do not use it to run workflows, schedule executions or test connections - it only inspects the export file. It cannot tell you why a node returned the wrong data at runtime, because it never sees execution results. It also cannot repair a workflow for you: the cleaner removes categories you select, but it will not rewrite a broken expression or reconnect a missing node. For those jobs, open the workflow in n8n itself.

Frequently Asked Questions