🤖📝 Auto-Document Workflows with GPT-4o-mini Sticky Notes

🤖📝 Auto-Document Workflows with GPT-4o-mini Sticky Notes

Skip the tedious part of writing documentation and turn your n8n workflows into clear, shareable blueprints — fully automated.

This workflow takes any workflow JSON, parses its nodes, generates structured sticky notes (both per-node and a general overview), and arranges them neatly on your canvas. No more messy layouts or missing documentation — everything is handled in one click.

It’s perfect if you want to publish to the n8n marketplace , onboard teammates quickly, or just keep your own automations easy to understand months later.

💡 What this workflow does

✅ Loads your existing workflow from a JSON file
🔍 Parses and unwraps real nodes (ignoring old stickies)
🤖 Uses AI to create concise sticky notes for each node
📝 Adds a general overview sticky with goals, flow, parameters, and gotchas
📐 Arranges all nodes + stickies (node above, sticky below, right-to-left)
💾 Saves a new documented workflow JSON, ready to reuse or share

⚙️ Step-by-step setup

1. Prepare your workflow file

   • Export your n8n workflow JSON or point to an existing file path.

2. Configure the “Load Workflow” node

   • Update the file selector to your JSON path, e.g. /workflows/myflow.json.

3. Add your OpenAI credentials

   • In the OpenAI API nodes (Node Sticky Notes + Overall Sticky Note), insert your API key.

4. Run the workflow

   • Trigger manually with the Execute Workflow node.
   • The script will parse your nodes, generate stickies, and align them on the canvas.

5. Save the result

   • The “Save Documented Workflow” node writes a new file, e.g. /workflows/myflow-with-sticky.json.

🛠 Customization

• Sticky layout: Adjust spacing, colors, and alignment in the Layout Blocks RTL node (tweak GAP_X, GAP_Y, or STICKY_COLOR).
• Word count & style: Edit prompts inside the OpenAI nodes to make notes shorter, longer, or more technical.
• Overview focus: Customize the Your Workflow Description node to pass context (e.g., project goals, intended audience).
• File outputs: Save to a new path/version for version control of your documentation.

⚠️ Limitations / Gotchas

• Maximum of ~50 nodes are summarized in the overview for brevity.
• Old sticky notes are removed and replaced — you can’t preserve them unless you fork the workflow.
• Complex nodes (large Code / AI prompts) may require manual edits for clarity.
• Ensure n8n has read/write access to your workflow JSON paths.

🎯 Expected result

After execution, you’ll get a fully documented workflow JSON where each node is paired with a clean sticky note, plus an overview note neatly placed on the canvas. You can open this new file in n8n, share it, or submit it directly to the marketplace.

📬 Contact & Feedback

Need help customizing this? Have ideas for improvement?

📩 [email protected]
🐦 DM me on Twitter @guanchehacker

If you’re working on advanced workflow documentation + AI, let’s talk — this template can be a foundation for more powerful tools.