> **progressive-building** — skill 31 of 43 in [n8n-io/n8n](https://skillsdocs.com/n8n-io/n8n). > > Book (all skills, one file): https://skillsdocs.com/n8n-io/n8n.md > Machine manifest: https://skillsdocs.com/n8n-io/n8n/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json > Install the book: `npx skills add n8n-io/n8n` > Upstream: https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/blob/master/packages/%40n8n/instance-ai/skills/progressive-building/SKILL.md @ `master` > Raw bytes, no header: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/n8n/master/packages/%40n8n/instance-ai/skills/progressive-building/SKILL.md > Base for relative paths: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/n8n/master/packages/%40n8n/instance-ai/skills/progressive-building/ > Licence: Other — https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n > > Content © its authors, served unmodified. Takedown: https://github.com/DreambaseAI/skillsdocs/issues/new?labels=takedown&title=Takedown+request --- name: progressive-building dependencies: tools: - build-workflow - verify-built-workflow - workflows - executions description: >- Load before build-workflow and before scoping or planning new workflows and feature additions, including requests spanning multiple workflows. Implement one increment per user message. Finish setup and inspect a successful real execution before offering another increment. Then wait for the next user reply. Partial setup is incomplete. A first setup or test refusal pauses building. Follow the skill's full-build exceptions. Also supports workflow edits and repairs. For workflows that create or write Data Tables, load data-table-manager first. Requests only to run, inspect, or manage existing resources use their normal tools and skills. --- # Progressive building Apply this policy when creating or extending workflows and repairing those builds. It overrides conflicting scoping and setup narration in the building and post-build guidance above. Keep their validation, approval, credential, publish, and cleanup rules. Write to the user in their conversation language. Requests to run, inspect, or manage existing resources use their normal tools and skills without this staging process. This also applies when the user switches to such a request after building in the same conversation. ## Choose the first version Acknowledge the full request before selecting the smallest useful outcome. Build a working part of the requested workflow. Do not create a throwaway demo. Use one trigger and at most two credentialed services in the first version. Each later increment adds at most one new trigger and at most two new credentialed services. This also applies when new triggers share existing logic or need no credentials. Count the trigger's credential. Count services even when their credentials are connected. Parameters and placeholders do not count. An AI provider counts toward the same two-service total as the trigger and other services, even if its credential is missing. Exclude a model only when Gateway credits is confirmed available for that model on this instance. If it needs a provider API key, count it. Keep this limit internal. Explain what the first version does and what comes next. Preserve the user's services. Prefer existing credentials when choosing between equally suitable starting points. Follow workflow-builder guidance on credential setup preferences when the user leaves the service open. Ask a single-choice question if several named services are equally central. Otherwise state a reasonable starting assumption. Do not offer a multi-select list that adds services or triggers to the first version. The `planning` skill and `create-tasks` tool are unavailable in this mode. Keep additional workflows as later roadmap items. ## Build, set up, and run 1. Build the selected version. Use the existing verification and setup flow. 2. Before its setup card, explain the full goal, what this version does, and the remaining outcomes. Do this on automatic `` turns too. Then open setup. Do not add more work while setup is incomplete. 3. Create missing prerequisites, such as sheet tabs or headers, through the existing one-off flow when the connected credentials permit it. 4. After setup, offer only a live run for manual or schedule triggers. The execution approval card supplies consent. For event triggers, explain how to start listening for a test event and perform the event, then ask the user to report back. Inspect the resulting execution with `executions`. 5. Extend only after a successful, non-simulated execution of the current version. A successful save, mocked verification, pinned data, or the user's statement alone does not satisfy this condition. Confirm that every required path added or changed in this increment ran successfully. Unchanged paths do not need another run. Report simulated verification as simulated, not as end-to-end success. Repair failures before extending. 6. After one increment's verification and setup, end the turn. Choose the next action from the current version's state: - Setup is incomplete: explain what is missing and offer to finish setup. A result with `partial: true` or nonempty `nodesStillNeedingSetup` stays in this state. Respect skipped credentials. If setup was deferred, pause without reopening it. - Setup is complete but a successful real execution is missing: ask only about the live test described above. Do not offer to build the next increment instead. - A successful real execution is confirmed: read the relevant node output, use its actual fields to propose the next outcome, and wait for a new user reply agreeing to continue. Edit the same workflow and source file when extending it. A successful verification does not authorize another increment in the same turn. The original list of requested outcomes does not replace this pause. Keep a short Done/Next roadmap in substantive replies about this build. Mark an outcome as done only after execution evidence confirms it. Do not claim the whole request is complete while outcomes remain. Keep later outcomes as roadmap items, not selectable alternatives to unfinished setup or a live test. A reply such as "continue" or "what's next?" keeps the current setup or live-test step. It is not a full-build request or another decline. After the first explicit setup or test refusal, state what remains untested and pause. Do not offer another increment or ask the user to repeat the refusal. A denied execution approval is one refusal, not permission to continue building. ## Finish without staging when asked Build a precise, complete implementation specification in one pass. This includes an explicit node list, an attached workflow, or a complete sequence of steps. A list of desired capabilities or entry points alone does not qualify. If the user explicitly asks to build everything now, finish the remaining scope in one pass. Do not infer this instruction from a list of requested additions. If the user declines setup or testing twice, stop requiring execution between increments. Finish the requested scope and offer setup at the end. Respect previously skipped credentials. State which parts remain untested.