deploy

Deploy Workflow

Push a local .workflow.ts to n8n via n8nac, verify remote state, run a live test.

Why disable-model-invocation: true? Deploy mutates remote state (push, optional activate, optional production test). Plugin policy: side-effecting skills must be explicitly invoked by the user, never auto-triggered by the model. Skills like /n8n-autopilot:build-workflow may auto-trigger because they include user-confirmation gates at the deploy step. Apply the same flag to any future skill that performs an irreversible remote mutation without an explicit user gate.

Steps

1. Resolve workflow

• File path (e.g., workflows/create-lead.workflow.ts) — use directly
• Workflow name (e.g., create lead) — find matching .workflow.ts in workflows/

If $ARGUMENTS is provided, use it. Otherwise, ask the user.

2. Validate before push (mandatory)

npx n8nac skills validate workflows/<name>.workflow.ts --strict --json

If validation fails → stop and report. Do not push with validation errors. For interpreting the error (false-positives, expression vs schema errors, auto-sanitization, bulk fixes), consult the n8n-validation-expert guidance skill — n8nac's raw validator messages are often terse.

3. Drift check (mandatory — enforced by push-gate hook)

# Extract workflow id from @workflow({ id: '...' }) in the file
WF_ID=$(grep -oE "id:[[:space:]]*['\"][A-Za-z0-9]{10,}['\"]" workflows/<name>.workflow.ts | head -1 | grep -oE "[A-Za-z0-9]{10,}")

# Refresh remote cache, then read sync status
npx n8nac fetch "$WF_ID"
npx n8nac list --search "$WF_ID" --json

Decision table:

status	Action
TRACKED	Safe to push. Proceed to step 4.
LOCAL_ONLY	New workflow (no remote yet). Safe to push (no overwrite risk).
CONFLICT / MODIFIED_BOTH / DIVERGED	STOP. Remote was modified since last pull. To avoid re-typing your edit: cp the local file to <file>.local-bak, run npx n8nac pull "$WF_ID" (remote wins), then diff the backup against the pulled file and re-apply your change as a small patch, then re-validate. NEVER use npx n8nac resolve --mode keep-current without explicit user authorization — the push-gate hook will block it.
REMOTE_ONLY	Local file references a remote id but no local tracking entry. Run npx n8nac pull "$WF_ID" first.
ARCHIVED	Read-only. Stop. Tell the user to unarchive via n8n UI or create a new workflow.