Agent skill · software engineering · sickn33
n8n-subworkflows
Build reusable n8n sub-workflows with typed inputs, all-vs-each execution, discoverable naming, and agent-tool exposure.
Why this skill is useful
Provides domain-specific patterns for creating reusable n8n sub-workflows that enhance agent capabilities.
What it needs
About 12k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 44,571 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
n8n Sub-workflows When to Use Use this skill when shared or multi-step logic should become a typed reusable workflow, when an existing workflow is growing difficult to reason about, or when an agent needs a workflow exposed as a tool. Preserve authentication and authorization boundaries when extracting logic. Do not place credentials in inputs or returned data, declare state-changing behavior explicitly, and ask before running or activating a sub-workflow that sends, writes, deletes, or calls a billable external service. A sub-workflow is a reusable function. An Execute Workflow Trigger declares typed inputs, the body does the work, and the last node returns the output. A caller invokes it through an Execute Workflow node like any other step. That framing buys you the things functions buy you everywhere: encapsulation, reuse, testability, replaceability. It's the primary reuse mechanism in n8n, and it's badly underused. Without it, the same logic gets copy-pasted across workflows — then a bug gets fixed in two places, the third copy gets missed, and your "identical" copies quietly drift apart. This skill is about when to reach for a sub-workflow, how to define its input/output contract so callers (and agents) can actually use it, how to call it correctly (all vs each, blocking vs fire-and-forget), and how to name it so it gets found instead of rebuilt. --- The two non-negotiables Everything else is judgement. These two are not. 1. Search before you build Before you write logic for a generic problem, check whether a sub-workflow already does it. The community MCP can't filter workflows by tag, so the name is the discovery surface: If something fits, use it and tell the user ("I found Subworkflow: Parse RFC2822 date — using that"). If nothing fits, build it with a discoverable name so the next search finds it. The discovery convention (verb-first prefixes) lives in references/NAMINGANDDISCOVERY.md. 2. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sickn33/n8n-subworkflows--9bb172