API Request

Calls a SaaS API from a built-in recipe (service + operation) — Airtable, GitHub, Google Calendar, Notion, Stripe, and more.

Finding it in the library

Search the builder's node library for API Request (it lives under Utility). A single click opens the in-editor docs panel shown here — description, ports, and every property, without leaving the canvas. Double-click (or drag) to add it to the workflow.

Library capture pending — regenerate with npm run shots:nodes.

Wired up in the builder

API Request in a real, runnable flow — captured live from the Studio editor, exactly as it looks on your canvas. This is the same workflow used for the example input & output below.

Canvas capture pending — regenerate with npm run shots:nodes.

How it’s configured

The node’s Configure panel as it opens in the builder when you select the step — every setting laid out with real values. Click any field to edit it.

Config capture pending — regenerate with npm run shots:nodes. See the full property reference below.

Ports

Ports are the node’s contract with its neighbours. In the editor a port label renders bold when wired and italic when optional; ◈ ports accept attachment carriers rather than data wires.

How data flows through it

API Request consumes the content of the incoming envelope — when it is fed directly by a trigger, the trigger’s wrapper is unwrapped at the node boundary so the node sees the actual data, not the metadata shell. Its output becomes the payload for the next node, while the envelope (trace ids, correlation, binary refs) rides along untouched. In the Runs view you always see the whole envelope for both sides of this node.

Expressions in the config

String-typed properties accept {{ }} expressions evaluated against the incoming item at run time — e.g. {{ $json.customer.email }}. On this node that’s baseUrl, authToken, authUser, authPassword, authName, authValue. JSON- and code-typed fields never interpolate — they are passed through literally.

Build it with AI

Every node in this reference is reachable through Flowdrome’s AI Copilot and the MCP tools — say what you want, and the graph surgery happens server-side. Node types resolve fuzzily, so the catalog label (API Request) works as well as the exact type id (utility.api).

In the Copilot panel (or any connected AI):

add a api request node after the trigger

As a step in a create_chain_workflow call:

{"type":"API Request","config":{}}

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:48170/mcp -H "content-type: application/json" -d '{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "tools/call", "params": { "name": "add_node", "arguments": { "workflowId": "<id>", "type": "API Request" } } }'

Example input & output

Captured from a real test run of the workflow above — this is what you see in the run data panel after pressing Test workflow.

On this run the node emitted on port error.

{
  "kind": "json",
  "contentType": "application/json",
  "payload": {},
  "body": {}
}

{
  "statusCode": 404,
  "ok": false,
  "contentType": "application/json",
  "body": {
    "error": "unknown personality: /appX/T"
  },
  "bodyText": "{\"error\":\"unknown personality: /appX/T\"}"
}

Property reference

Every setting, with its type and default — the same fields shown configured in the panel above.

Related nodes

The rest of the Utility group — the same folder you’d scan in the editor’s library.

• Log Writes a runtime log entry without emitting an output branch.
• Console Prints a message to the editor's floating debug Console (timestamped, live during Test/Debug)
• Visualize Passes data through untouched; during debugging it pauses and shows the envelope to view/edit.
• Unknown An imported node with no Flowdrome equivalent yet — its original type, parameters, and ports are preserved for
• Set Variable Assigns run-scoped $vars from literals or {{ }} expressions over $envelope/$vars.
• JavaScript Runs custom JavaScript with the FULL platform SDK on `flowdrome`: emit/log/kv/memory plus flowdrome.nodes (cat
• Python Holds a Python script (imported from n8n)
• C# Runs sandboxed C# on a .NET host (Nucleus / Flowdrome host): input/vars/config + Get/Set/Remember/Recall, retu

This page is generated from the node registry by gen-node-docs.mjs on every site build — ports, properties, defaults and visibility rules cannot drift from the code. The screenshots and example data are captured from a live Flowdrome by npm run shots:nodes and npm run gen:examples.