Agent skill · n8n-io
credential-recipe-research
Lookup procedure for Simplified Custom Auth recipe fields — sources the auth template, the key-issuing docsUrl and an auth-rejecting testUrl from the provider's real documentation instead of memory. Load before composing credentialHints for a service without a dedicated credential type (the post-build-flow setup step), or when asked to fix a recipe whose template, key page or test endpoint is wrong.
What it needs
About 3k tokens when loaded.
What this skill does
Credential Recipe Research A recipe is only as good as the documentation it came from. This is a procedure, not guidance: execute every step with the research tool and keep only findings you can point to on a fetched page. Guessed URLs are how users end up on the wrong page with a key that can't be verified. Inputs: the service name and the API host(s) the workflow's nodes call. 1. Auth scheme (template) Fetch the provider's authentication docs — research(action="web-search") with "<service> API authentication", then fetch-url the best docs hit. Record the scheme EXACTLY as documented: header name, prefix word, casing (Authorization: Key {{apikey}} vs Bearer {{apikey}} vs a custom header like xi-api-key). If the documented auth is basic, digest, or OAuth, stop: that is not expressible as a template — use the matching generic type instead (see the workflow-builder skill's credential ladder). 2. Key page (docsUrl) Find where a logged-in user CREATES or COPIES the key. The URL is not shown in the form — the AI Assistant help thread presents it as THE place to get the value, so a wrong URL sends the user to a dead end with full confidence: Search "<service> dashboard API keys", and scan the fetched auth docs for phrases like "get your key from", "Dashboard → API Keys", "console", "settings". The answer normally lives on an app/console/dashboard host — console.apify.com/settings/integrations, elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys, replicate.com/account/api-tokens, app.tavily.com/home — not under /docs, /reference, or /documentation. Accept a docs-domain URL only when the fetched page shows keys are actually issued there (some ReadMe-style logged-in portals do). NEVER construct a dashboard path by analogy (/account/api-keys, /dashboard/keys, …). Dashboards are apps behind a login: a fetch answers 200 for any invented route, so the path cannot be verified by fetching. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills n8n-io/credential-recipe-research