n8n Node Inspector API

This n8n custom extension provides an API endpoint to list all registered nodes on your n8n instance, including their properties, inputs, outputs, and other metadata.

Features

• Exposes a GET endpoint: /custom/nodes
• Lists all core, community, and custom nodes.
• Provides details for each node:
  • name: Internal n8n name (e.g., n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest)
  • displayName: User-friendly name (e.g., "HTTP Request")
  • type: Categorized as 'core', 'core-contrib', 'community', or 'custom'
  • version: Node version
  • description: Node's purpose
  • inputs: Array of input connection names (e.g., ["main"])
  • outputs: Array of output connection names (e.g., ["main"])
  • credentials: Array of credential types the node can use.
  • properties: Detailed array of all configurable properties for the node.

Prerequisites

• A self-hosted n8n instance.
• Node.js and npm/yarn installed for building the package.

Building the Package

1. Clone this repository (or create the files as described).
2. Navigate to the package directory: cd n8n-nodes-node-inspector
3. Install dependencies: npm install (or yarn install)
4. Build the package: npm run build

This will compile the TypeScript code into the dist directory.

Installation on n8n

There are two main ways to install custom extensions in n8n:

Method 1: Manual Copy (for testing or simple setups)

1. Ensure the package is built (you should have a dist folder).
2. Locate your n8n custom extensions directory. By default, this is ~/.n8n/custom/ (Linux/macOS) or %USERPROFILE%/.n8n/custom/ (Windows).
3. Create this directory if it doesn't exist.
4. Copy the entire n8n-nodes-node-inspector package folder (including dist, package.json, etc.) into the ~/.n8n/custom/ directory.
   The structure should be: ~/.n8n/custom/n8n-nodes-node-inspector/package.json, etc.
5. Restart your n8n instance.

Method 2: Docker Volume Mounting (recommended for Docker deployments)

1. Ensure the package is built.

2. When running your n8n Docker container, mount the n8n-nodes-node-inspector package directory into /home/node/.n8n/custom/ inside the container.

   Example docker-compose.yml snippet:

   services:
     n8n:
       image: n8nio/n8n
       ports:
         - "5678:5678"
       environment:
         # Add other n8n environment variables as needed
       volumes:
         - ~/.n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n # For n8n data persistence
         - ./path/to/your/n8n-nodes-node-inspector:/home/node/.n8n/custom/n8n-nodes-node-inspector # Mount the custom extension
   

   Replace ./path/to/your/n8n-nodes-node-inspector with the actual path to your built package on the host machine.

3. Restart your n8n Docker container (docker-compose up -d --force-recreate or similar).

Usage

Once installed and n8n is restarted, the API endpoint will be available at:

http://<your-n8n-host>:<port>/custom/nodes

For a local n8n instance running on port 5678, this would be:
http://localhost:5678/custom/nodes

You can access this URL with a browser, curl, Postman, or an n8n HTTP Request node.

Example Output Snippet

[
  {
    "name": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
    "displayName": "HTTP Request",
    "type": "core",
    "version": 1,
    "description": "Makes an HTTP request to a remote server",
    "inputs": ["main"],
    "outputs": ["main"],
    "credentials": [
      {
        "name": "httpBasicAuth",
        "required": false
      },
      {
        "name": "httpDigestAuth",
        "required": false
      }
      // ... and other credential types
    ],
    "properties": [
      {
        "displayName": "Authentication",
        "name": "authentication",
        "type": "options",
        "options": [ /* ... */ ],
        "default": "none"
      },
      {
        "displayName": "URL",
        "name": "url",
        "type": "string",
        "default": "",
        "placeholder": "http://localhost/webhook",
        "description": "The URL to make the request to",
        "required": true
      }
      // ... many more properties
    ]
  }
  // ... other nodes
]

Development

• npm run dev: To watch for changes in src/ and recompile automatically.
• npm run lint: To lint the TypeScript code.
• npm run format: To format the code with Prettier.

You'll need to restart n8n after recompiling and updating the files in the ~/.n8n/custom directory for changes to take effect.