Edit an existing one

[maxmugen]

Hello,

I’m just getting started with N8n, and honestly, it’s been pretty frustrating. I’ve managed to get a few workflows running, but nearly every node I’ve used to pull data from APIs feels incomplete. A lot of information that the API normally provides is simply missing — either omitted or not implemented — which makes it feel like unfinished work. In the end, I have to rebuild everything from scratch just to get basic information. I’ve run into this issue with nodes like Notion, Airtable, Gumroad, and others.

I wanted to know if it’s possible to modify an existing node to add missing fields or properties, building off what’s already there. For now, creating a full custom node is completely out of reach for me. It feels like way too much work and complexity just to set up a proper, functional information pipeline. I’ve looked through the documentation, but honestly, I’m not ready to put that much time and energy into what should be a simple first project.

Also, I’ve noticed that most of the pre-built node documentation is vague or incomplete. So, I find myself trying to reverse-engineer what the person who built it actually did. I have to dig into the external API documentation, compare it with the node, try to guess what parts have been used, and so on… It gets complicated really fast.

That said, I hope I’ll eventually gain the skills to handle all this properly. Maybe there’s some hybrid solution, like combining an existing node with an HTTP Request to patch the missing data, but even that feels messy, unclean, and honestly, not how things should be done.

If you have any suggestions or pointers to help me deal with this kind of situation, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks.

[jabbson]

Hey @maxmugen hope all is well and welcome to the community.

I feel your pain, it does indeed sometimes feel like there could be more depth to the nodes functionality. You can totally extend the functionality with custom API calls from HTTP Request node, also, you can clone the repo and extend the nodes yourself, if you would like to contribute. You can create new Community Nodes or just ask for new nodes or functionality through Feature Requests.

And most importantly, remember - you are not alone, if in doubt, or have questions and just need to rant, come here (although even when letting some steam out, remember to be kind).

Good luck and have fun!