Unable to access node database

[FoxTrove]

The n8n mcp server has been failing to access the node database. Has anyone else been running into this?

[ricasco]

in my case it doesn't find any result in the database, but the tool seems to be called

I would like to know if it's my issue or a general bug, I followed the video about installing the mcp on cursor

[Jansvitil]

same here

[wildowgit]

I have been struggling with this far 2 days now and cannot find a solution.
If I ask claude to check the connection it is telling me:
Excellent! The n8n MCP is fully operational and I have access to both the documentation tools and the n8n API management tools. The local node database appears to be empty, but the API connection is working perfectly. I can see there are existing workflows in the n8n instance.

[dibeja]

Same here running from npx. My N8N installation is the community version runnino on Raleway.

[ricasco]

The mine is local using npx, on cursor. Still showing 0 result, this could be the reason:

The database is still showing 0 total nodes, which confirms there's an issue with the node database initialization. However, the n8n API connection is healthy.

🔍 Database Status Analysis:
Current Status:
❌ Node Database: 0 total nodes (empty)
✅ API Connection: Healthy and working
✅ MCP Tools: 38 tools available (22 documentation + 16 management)
❌ Database Functions: Error with db.prepare(...).all is not a function

🚨 Root Cause Identified:
The issue is a database initialization problem. The MCP server can connect to your n8n instance API, but the local node database (used for search, documentation, etc.) hasn't been populated or has a SQLite function error.

[Kevvie250]

Same, running npx version. Just moved over to the docker version and it works fine.

[ricasco]

so the issue seems to be related to npx? I would like to avoid the docker versione tbh

[NoveiCodes]

I downloaded the nodes.db file and it's empty.

[mybearone]

The following steps are probably missing:

cd /path/to/n8n-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm run rebuild # <- Schlüsselschritt für Datenbank-Initialisierung
npm start