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Tags Management Tools

Reference for tag management tools to organize and categorize workflows.

Overview

Tags help organize workflows into logical groups (production, development, testing, etc.). The MCP server provides 5 tag management tools.

Tools Summary

Tool Purpose n8n API
list_tags / get_tags List all tags GET /tags
get_tag Get specific tag details GET /tags/{id}
create_tag Create new tag POST /tags
update_tag Modify tag name PUT /tags/{id}
delete_tag Remove tag DELETE /tags/{id}

list_tags / get_tags

Retrieve all available tags.

Input Parameters

{
  instance?: string;       // n8n instance (optional)
}

Output Format

{
  tags: Array<{
    id: string;
    name: string;
    createdAt: string;
    updatedAt: string;
  }>;
}

Usage Example

Request: List all tags

Response: 

Available Tags:

1. production (ID: 1)
   - Created: 2025-12-01

2. development (ID: 2)
   - Created: 2025-12-01

3. testing (ID: 3)
   - Created: 2025-12-15

create_tag

Create a new tag for organizing workflows.

Input Parameters

{
  name: string;            // Tag name (required)
  instance?: string;       // n8n instance (optional)
}

Usage Example

Request: Create tag "production"

Response: 

✅ Successfully created tag!

Tag Details:
- ID: 123
- Name: production
- Created: 2025-12-27

Use this tag to organize workflows.

update_tag

Rename an existing tag.

Input Parameters

{
  id: string;              // Tag ID (required)
  name: string;            // New name (required)
  instance?: string;       // n8n instance (optional)
}

Known Issue

API Limitation

n8n API v1.82.3 may return 409 Conflict when updating tag names. Workaround: Delete old tag and create new one if update fails.

delete_tag

Remove a tag. Does not delete workflows, only removes tag association.

Input Parameters

{
  id: string;              // Tag ID (required)
  instance?: string;       // n8n instance (optional)
}

Usage Example

Request: Delete tag "old-tag"

Response: 

✅ Successfully deleted tag "old-tag" (ID: 99)

Note: Workflows previously tagged are unchanged,
only the tag association has been removed.

Tagging Workflows

Tags are assigned when creating or updating workflows:

// When creating workflow
create_workflow({
  name: "My Workflow",
  nodes: [...],
  tags: ["tag_id_1", "tag_id_2"]
})

// When updating workflow
update_workflow({
  id: "workflow_id",
  tags: ["tag_id_3"]  // Replaces all tags
})

Common Tagging Patterns

Environment Tags: - production - Live workflows - staging - Testing environment - development - Development workflows

Category Tags: - alerts - Notification workflows - backups - Backup automation - integrations - External service integrations - reports - Reporting workflows

Status Tags: - active - Currently in use - deprecated - To be removed - experimental - Testing new features

Next Steps