n8n-workflows/README.md

⚡ N8N Workflow Collection & Documentation

A professionally organized collection of 2,053 n8n workflows with a lightning-fast documentation system that provides instant search, analysis, and browsing capabilities.

🚀 NEW: High-Performance Documentation System

Experience 100x performance improvement over traditional documentation!

Quick Start - Fast Documentation System

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Start the fast API server
python3 api_server.py

# Open in browser
http://localhost:8000

Features:

• ⚡ Sub-100ms response times (vs 10+ seconds before)
• 🔍 Instant full-text search with ranking and filters
• 📱 Responsive design - works perfectly on mobile
• 🌙 Dark/light themes with system preference detection
• 📊 Live statistics and workflow insights
• 🎯 Smart categorization by trigger type and complexity
• 📄 On-demand JSON viewing and download
• 🔗 Mermaid diagram generation for workflow visualization

Performance Comparison

Metric	Old System	New System	Improvement
File Size	71MB HTML	<100KB	700x smaller
Load Time	10+ seconds	<1 second	10x faster
Search	Client-side only	Full-text with FTS5	Instant
Memory Usage	~2GB RAM	<50MB RAM	40x less
Mobile Support	Poor	Excellent	Fully responsive

---

📂 Repository Organization

Workflow Collection

• 2,053 workflows with meaningful, searchable names
• Professional naming convention - [ID]_[Service]_[Purpose]_[Trigger].json
• Comprehensive coverage - 100+ services and use cases
• Quality assurance - All workflows analyzed and categorized

Recent Improvements

• ✅ 858 generic workflows renamed from meaningless "workflow_XXX" patterns
• ✅ 36 overly long names shortened while preserving meaning
• ✅ 9 broken filenames fixed with proper extensions
• ✅ 100% success rate with zero data loss during transformation

---

🛠 Usage Instructions

Option 1: Modern Fast System (Recommended)

# Install Python dependencies
pip install fastapi uvicorn

# Start the documentation server
python3 api_server.py

# Browse workflows at http://localhost:8000
# - Instant search and filtering
# - Professional responsive interface
# - Real-time workflow statistics

Option 2: Legacy System (Deprecated)

# ⚠️ WARNING: Generates 71MB file, very slow
python3 generate_documentation.py
# Then open workflow-documentation.html

Import Workflows into n8n

1. Open your n8n Editor UI
2. Click menu (☰) → Import workflow
3. Choose any .json file from the workflows/ folder
4. Update credentials/webhook URLs before running

Bulk Import All Workflows

./import-workflows.sh

---

📊 Workflow Statistics

• Total Workflows: 2,053 automation workflows
• Naming Quality: 100% meaningful names (improved from 58%)
• Categories: Data sync, notifications, integrations, monitoring
• Services: 100+ platforms (Gmail, Slack, Notion, Stripe, etc.)
• Complexity Range: Simple 2-node to complex 50+ node automations
• File Format: Standard n8n-compatible JSON exports

Trigger Distribution

• Manual: ~40% - User-initiated workflows
• Webhook: ~25% - API-triggered automations
• Scheduled: ~20% - Time-based executions
• Complex: ~15% - Multi-trigger systems

Complexity Levels

• Low (≤5 nodes): ~45% - Simple automations
• Medium (6-15 nodes): ~35% - Standard workflows
• High (16+ nodes): ~20% - Complex systems

---

📋 Naming Convention

Standard Format

[ID]_[Service1]_[Service2]_[Purpose]_[Trigger].json

Examples

# Good naming examples:
100_Gmail_Slack_Notification_Webhook.json
250_Stripe_Hubspot_Invoice_Sync.json
375_Airtable_Data_Backup_Scheduled.json

# Service mappings:
n8n-nodes-base.gmail → Gmail
n8n-nodes-base.slack → Slack
n8n-nodes-base.webhook → Webhook

Purpose Categories

• Create - Creating new records/content
• Update - Updating existing data
• Sync - Synchronizing between systems
• Send - Sending notifications/messages
• Monitor - Monitoring and alerting
• Process - Data processing/transformation
• Import/Export - Data migration tasks

---

🏗 Technical Architecture

Modern Stack (New System)

• SQLite Database - FTS5 full-text search, indexed metadata
• FastAPI Backend - REST API with automatic documentation
• Responsive Frontend - Single-file HTML with embedded assets
• Smart Analysis - Automatic workflow categorization

Key Features

• Change Detection - Only reprocess modified workflows
• Background Indexing - Non-blocking workflow analysis
• Compressed Responses - Gzip middleware for speed
• Virtual Scrolling - Handle thousands of workflows smoothly
• Lazy Loading - Diagrams and JSON loaded on demand

Database Schema

-- Optimized for search and filtering
CREATE TABLE workflows (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    filename TEXT UNIQUE,
    name TEXT,
    active BOOLEAN,
    trigger_type TEXT,
    complexity TEXT,
    node_count INTEGER,
    integrations TEXT,  -- JSON array
    tags TEXT,         -- JSON array
    file_hash TEXT     -- For change detection
);

-- Full-text search capability
CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE workflows_fts USING fts5(
    filename, name, description, integrations, tags
);

---

🔧 Setup & Requirements

System Requirements

• Python 3.7+ - For running the documentation system
• Modern Browser - Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
• n8n Instance - For importing and running workflows

Installation

# Clone repository
git clone <repo-url>
cd n8n-workflows

# Install dependencies (for fast system)
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Start documentation server
python3 api_server.py --port 8000

# Or use legacy system (not recommended)
python3 generate_documentation.py

Development Setup

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # Linux/Mac
# or .venv\Scripts\activate  # Windows

# Install dependencies
pip install fastapi uvicorn

# Run with auto-reload for development
python3 api_server.py --reload

---

🤝 Contributing

Adding New Workflows

1. Export workflow as JSON from n8n
2. Name descriptively following the naming convention
3. Add to workflows/ directory
4. Test the workflow before contributing
5. Remove sensitive data (credentials, personal URLs)

Naming Guidelines

• Use clear, descriptive names
• Follow the established format: [ID]_[Service]_[Purpose].json
• Maximum 80 characters when possible
• Use underscores instead of spaces

Quality Standards

• ✅ Workflow must be functional
• ✅ Remove all credentials and sensitive data
• ✅ Add meaningful description in workflow name
• ✅ Test in clean n8n instance
• ✅ Follow naming convention

---

📚 Workflow Sources

This collection includes workflows from:

• Official n8n.io - Website and community forum
• GitHub repositories - Public community contributions
• Blog posts & tutorials - Real-world examples
• User submissions - Tested automation patterns
• Documentation examples - Official n8n guides

---

⚠️ Important Notes

Security & Privacy

• Review before use - All workflows shared as-is
• Update credentials - Remove/replace API keys and tokens
• Test safely - Verify in development environment first
• Check permissions - Ensure proper access rights

Compatibility

• n8n Version - Most workflows compatible with recent versions
• Community Nodes - Some may require additional node installations
• API Changes - External services may have updated their APIs
• Dependencies - Check required integrations before importing

---

🎯 Quick Start Guide

1. Clone Repository

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd n8n-workflows
   

2. Start Fast Documentation

   pip install fastapi uvicorn
   python3 api_server.py
   

3. Browse Workflows

   • Open http://localhost:8000
   • Use instant search and filters
   • Explore workflow categories

4. Import & Use

   • Find interesting workflows
   • Download JSON files
   • Import into your n8n instance
   • Update credentials and test

---

🏆 Project Achievements

Repository Transformation

• 903 workflows renamed with intelligent content analysis
• 100% meaningful names (improved from 58% well-named)
• Professional organization with consistent standards
• Zero data loss during renaming process

Performance Revolution

• 71MB → <100KB documentation size (700x improvement)
• 10+ seconds → <1 second load time (10x faster)
• Client-side → Server-side search (infinite scalability)
• Static → Dynamic interface (modern user experience)

Quality Improvements

• Intelligent categorization - Automatic trigger and complexity detection
• Enhanced searchability - Full-text search with ranking
• Mobile optimization - Responsive design for all devices
• Professional presentation - Clean, modern interface

---

This repository represents the most comprehensive and well-organized collection of n8n workflows available, with cutting-edge documentation technology that makes workflow discovery and usage a delightful experience.