/credential-recipe-research

name: credential-recipe-research
description: >-
  Lookup procedure for Simplified Custom Auth recipe fields — sources the auth
  template, the key-issuing docsUrl and an auth-rejecting testUrl from the
  provider's real documentation instead of memory. Load before composing
  credentialHints for a service without a dedicated credential type (the
  post-build-flow setup step), or when asked to fix a recipe whose template,
  key page or test endpoint is wrong.
recommended_tools:
  - research
  - workflows

Credential Recipe Research

A recipe is only as good as the documentation it came from. This is a procedure, not guidance: execute every step with the `research` tool and keep only findings you can point to on a fetched page. Guessed URLs are how users end up on the wrong page with a key that can't be verified.

Inputs: the service name and the API host(s) the workflow's nodes call.

1. Auth scheme (template)

Fetch the provider's authentication docs — `research(action="web-search")` with `"<service> API authentication"`, then `fetch-url` the best docs hit. Record the scheme EXACTLY as documented: header name, prefix word, casing (`Authorization: Key {{api_key}}` vs `Bearer {{api_key}}` vs a custom header like `xi-api-key`). If the documented auth is basic, digest, or OAuth, stop: that is not expressible as a template — use the matching generic type instead (see the workflow-builder skill's credential ladder).

2. Key page (docsUrl)

Find where a logged-in user CREATES or COPIES the key. The URL is not shown in the form — the n8n Assistant help thread presents it as THE place to get the value, so a wrong URL sends the user to a dead end with full confidence:

• Search `"<service> dashboard API keys"`, and scan the fetched auth docs for

phrases like "get your key from", "Dashboard → API Keys", "console", "settings".

• The answer normally lives on an app/console/dashboard host —

`console.apify.com/settings/integrations`, `elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys`, `replicate.com/account/api-tokens`, `app.tavily.com/home` — not under `/docs`, `/reference`, or `/documentation`.

• Accept a docs-domain URL only when the fetched page shows keys are actually

issued there (some ReadMe-style logged-in portals do).

• NEVER construct a dashboard path by analogy (`/account/api-keys`,

`/dashboard/keys`, …). Dashboards are apps behind a login: a fetch answers 200 for any invented route, so the path cannot be verified by fetching. Emit a deep dashboard URL only when it appears VERBATIM on a page you fetched; when the docs only describe navigation ("Dashboard → API Keys") without a literal URL, use the dashboard/app root they reference — a shallower real page beats a deeper invented one.

• Nothing conclusive after both steps → omit docsUrl. Never pass off the API

reference as the key page.

3. Verification endpoint (testUrl)

Find a documented, side-effect-free GET that rejects a bad key with 401/403. Check the API reference in this order and stop at the first qualifying hit:

1. Account/profile/me endpoints — `/v1/account`, `/v2/users/me`, `/v1/user`. 2. Usage/quota endpoints — e.g. fal's `/v1/models/usage`, Tavily's `/usage`. 3. List/discovery endpoints — `/v1/templates`, `/v1/models`, `/v1/voices`.

Rules, all mandatory:

• The endpoint must appear on a page you fetched — never construct a path by

analogy with other APIs.

• Never one of the workflow's own endpoints, never a resource or action URL,

never anything that can trigger billable work. Setup rejects workflow-URL collisions, and the probe reports unexpected statuses as "could not be verified" — an invented URL only costs the user trust.

• Skip endpoints that answer 2xx regardless of the key: auth-optional

endpoints (Pexels search) or services that signal auth errors in the response body (Apollo's `auth/health`, TikTok) — a status probe cannot verify through them.

• Nothing qualifies → omit testUrl. The credential saves fine and the card

honestly reports it could not be verified, which beats a false green.

4. Compose

Fill `credentialHints` (field list and example in the post-build-flow skill) from the findings above only. `suggestedName` names the service ("Apify API Token"); never include a real secret.