Use templates

When creating a new workflow, you can choose whether to start with an empty workflow, or use an existing template.

Templates provide:

• Help getting started: n8n might already have a template that does what you need.

• Examples of what you can build

• Best practices for creating your own workflows

Access templates

Select Templates to view the templates library.

If you use n8n's template library, this takes you to browse Workflows on the n8n website. If you use a custom library provided by your organization, you'll be able to search and browse the templates within the app.

Add your workflow to the n8n library

You can submit your workflows to n8n's template library.

n8n is working on a creator program, and developing a marketplace of templates. This is an ongoing project, and details are likely to change.

Refer to n8n Creator hub for information on how to submit templates and become a creator.

Self-hosted n8n: Use your own library

In your environment variables, set N8N_TEMPLATES_HOST to the base URL of your API.

Endpoints

Your API must provide the same endpoints and data structure as n8n's.

The endpoints are:

Method	Path	Purpose
GET	/templates/workflows/<id>	Fetch template metadata for preview/browsing
GET	/workflows/templates/<id>	Fetch workflow data to import onto canvas
GET	/templates/search	Search for workflow templates
GET	/templates/collections/<id>	Get a specific template collection
GET	/templates/collections	List all template collections
GET	/templates/categories	List all template categories
GET	/health	Health check endpoint

Critical: Two different response formats required

The two workflow endpoints require different response formats:

• /templates/workflows/{id}: Returns the template itself, which includes the workflow in the workflow key

• /workflows/templates/{id}: Returns the workflow the template contains

See Schemas below for details.

Query parameters

The /templates/search endpoint accepts the following query parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
page	integer	The page of results to return
rows	integer	The maximum number of results to return per page
category	comma-separated list of strings (categories)	The categories to search within
search	string	The search query

The /templates/collections endpoint accepts the following query parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
category	comma-separated list of strings (categories)	The categories to search within
search	string	The search query

Schemas

The key difference between the two workflow endpoints:

// GET /templates/workflows/{id} returns (wrapped):
{
  "workflow": {
    "id": 123,
    "name": "...",
    "totalViews": 1000,
    // ... see full workflow item schema below
    "workflow": {    // actual workflow definition
      "nodes": [...],
      "connections": {}
    }
  }
}

// GET /workflows/templates/{id} returns (flat):
{
  "id": 123,
  "name": "...",
  "workflow": {      // actual workflow definition
    "nodes": [...],
    "connections": {}
  }
}

Detailed schemas for response objects:

Show workflow item data schema

Used by /templates/workflows/{id} endpoint (wrapped in a workflow key).

This schema describes the template metadata used for displaying templates in search/browse UI. It includes a nested workflow property that contains the actual importable workflow definition.

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "title": "Generated schema for Root",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "totalViews": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "price": {},
    "purchaseUrl": {},
    "recentViews": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "createdAt": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "user": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "username": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "verified": {
          "type": "boolean"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "username",
        "verified"
      ]
    },
    "nodes": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "id": {
            "type": "number"
          },
          "icon": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "name": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "codex": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "data": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                  "details": {
                    "type": "string"
                  },
                  "resources": {
                    "type": "object",
                    "properties": {
                      "generic": {
                        "type": "array",
                        "items": {
                          "type": "object",
                          "properties": {
                            "url": {
                              "type": "string"
                            },
                            "icon": {
                              "type": "string"
                            },
                            "label": {
                              "type": "string"
                            }
                          },
                          "required": [
                            "url",
                            "label"
                          ]
                        }
                      },
                      "primaryDocumentation": {
                        "type": "array",
                        "items": {
                          "type": "object",
                          "properties": {
                            "url": {
                              "type": "string"
                            }
                          },
                          "required": [
                            "url"
                          ]
                        }
                      }
                    },
                    "required": [
                      "primaryDocumentation"
                    ]
                  },
                  "categories": {
                    "type": "array",
                    "items": {
                      "type": "string"
                    }
                  },
                  "nodeVersion": {
                    "type": "string"
                  },
                  "codexVersion": {
                    "type": "string"
                  }
                },
                "required": [
                  "categories"
                ]
              }
            }
          },
          "group": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "defaults": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "name": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "color": {
                "type": "string"
              }
            },
            "required": [
              "name"
            ]
          },
          "iconData": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "icon": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "type": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "fileBuffer": {
                "type": "string"
              }
            },
            "required": [
              "type"
            ]
          },
          "displayName": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "typeVersion": {
            "type": "number"
          },
          "nodeCategories": {
            "type": "array",
            "items": {
              "type": "object",
              "properties": {
                "id": {
                  "type": "number"
                },
                "name": {
                  "type": "string"
                }
              },
              "required": [
                "id",
                "name"
              ]
            }
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "id",
          "icon",
          "name",
          "codex",
          "group",
          "defaults",
          "iconData",
          "displayName",
          "typeVersion"
        ]
      }
    },
    "description": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "image": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "id": {
            "type": "number"
          },
          "url": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "categories": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "id": {
            "type": "number"
          },
          "name": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "workflowInfo": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "nodeCount": {
          "type": "number"
        },
        "nodeTypes": {
          "type": "object"
        }
      }
    },
    "workflow": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "nodes": {
          "type": "array"
        },
        "connections": {
          "type": "object"
        },
        "settings": {
          "type": "object"
        },
        "pinData": {
          "type": "object"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "nodes",
        "connections"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "id",
    "name",
    "totalViews",
    "createdAt",
    "user",
    "nodes",
    "workflow"
  ]
}

Show category item data schema

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "id",
    "name"
  ]
}

Show collection item data schema

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "rank": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "totalViews": {},
    "createdAt": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "workflows": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "id": {
            "type": "number"
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "id"
        ]
      }
    },
    "nodes": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {}
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "id",
    "rank",
    "name",
    "totalViews",
    "createdAt",
    "workflows",
    "nodes"
  ]
}

You can also interactively explore n8n's API endpoints:

https://api.n8n.io/templates/categories https://api.n8n.io/templates/collections https://api.n8n.io/templates/search https://api.n8n.io/health

You can contact us for more support.