n8n TEMP workflow cleanup

Discover and delete temporary / one-shot / exploratory n8n workflows.

Why this exists

n8n workflows accumulate silently. A session creates a TEMP workflow to test a Gmail query, a Drive upload, or a Zoho read — runs it once, then leaves it. After 3 months: 91 stale workflows cluttering n8n, 76 sharing the same Zoho credential, nobody knows which are safe to delete (origin: 2026-08-12, 428 → 337 cleanup). The rule n8n-one-shot-workflow-must-be-deleted.md mandates same-session deletion; this skill is the mechanical enforcement.

n8n deletion lifecycle (archive-before-delete)

n8n does NOT allow direct deletion of an active, non-archived workflow:

DELETE /api/v1/workflows/:id  →  403 Forbidden (public API)
DELETE /rest/workflows/:id    →  400 "Workflow must be archived before it can be deleted"

Correct 3-step flow (REST API, cookie-auth):

1. Deactivate (if active): POST /rest/workflows/:id/deactivate
2. Archive (required): POST /rest/workflows/:id/archive → sets isArchived: true
3. Delete (permanent): DELETE /rest/workflows/:id

The script scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs handles all 3 steps + credential lookup via credentials-mcp automatically.

Commands

Auto-discover + delete all TEMP-named workflows

# Dry run — list all TEMP-named workflows (no changes)
node scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs --temp

# Delete all TEMP-named workflows (deactivate → archive → delete each)
node scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs --temp --force

--temp matches workflow names containing: TEMP, TMP, temp, tmp, _temp_, _tmp_ (case-insensitive). Safety guard: workflows with schedule triggers, webhook triggers, or cron triggers are NEVER auto-deleted even if their name contains "temp".

Delete a specific workflow by ID

# Dry run — show what would be deleted
node scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs <workflow-id>

# Confirm and delete
node scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs <workflow-id> --force

Batch delete from a file

# File: one ID per line (or comma/space separated)
node scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs --batch <ids-file> --force

List all stale workflows (broader than TEMP)

# Lists all inactive workflows without schedule/webhook triggers
node scripts/n8n_delete_workflow.mjs --list

When to use

• After creating a TEMP workflow for testing a Gmail query, Drive upload, Zoho read, or any one-shot probe — delete it in the SAME session.
• When the asks for n8n hygiene — "почисти temp", "cleanup temp workflows", "удали временные".
• Periodic sweep — quarterly or when workflow count exceeds 400.
• After a workflow is superseded — deploy the new one, deactivate the old, delete after one verification cycle.

When NOT to use

• Active scheduled workflows (4h, daily, weekly) — even if rarely triggered.
• Webhook-triggered workflows serving live integrations.
• Sub-workflows called by other active workflows.
• Workflows in a documented "standby" state with a reactivation plan.

Output format

The script prints per-workflow progress:

[abc123]
  Workflow: TEMP — Check Exafunction in Drive [abc123] active=false
  ✓ Archived
  ✓ Deleted

Done: 17 deleted, 0 failed

On failure, exits with code 2 and prints failure reasons.

Credentials

Reads from your credentials config via your credentials tool:

• N8N_BASE_URL
• N8N_LOGIN_EMAIL
• N8N_LOGIN_PASSWORD
• N8N_API_KEY (for API v1 reads, not used for delete)

Falls back to direct file parsing if credentials-mcp is unavailable.

Composes with

• n8n-one-shot-workflow-must-be-deleted.md — the rule this skill enforces
• close-task — full task closure includes n8n temp cleanup
• no-phantom-watchers.md — sibling discipline (don't leave dangling automation)
• prod-deploy-default.md — finish what you start in the same session

Origin

2026-08-19: after testing the Exafunction/Devin receipt pipeline, 3 temp workflows were left in n8n (TEMP — Check Mark Bondarev labels, TEMP — Check Exafunction in Drive, TEMP — List Exafunction Drive v2). the asked to automate cleanup. The --temp auto-discovery mode was added to the existing n8n_delete_workflow.mjs script (which already handled the archive-before-delete lifecycle), and this skill was created for cross-IDE discoverability.