Interactive Control Nodes – visual controls directly on the canvas

Feature Requests Nodes
1

It would help if there was a node for:

An interactive “Control Node” — a visual control node that lets you interact with your workflow directly on the canvas, without opening any settings panel. It would support multiple control types on the node face itself:

  • Toggle / Switch – routes the workflow into Path A, Path B, Path C, etc., either flipped manually or driven by an upstream value

  • Knob / Slider – a rotary dial or range slider for selecting a numeric value within a defined range (e.g. 0–100, 0.0–1.0)

  • Text input – enter a string or number directly on the node that you can see; the value is passed downstream

  • Button – manually trigger a specific path or action with a single click on the canvas (like the Trigger manually button)

  • Dropdown / Selector – pick one option from a predefined list, switchable right on the node

Each control type can be set manually on the canvas or driven programmatically by incoming data. The current state is always visible on the node itself.

My use case:

When building, testing and operating workflows, I often need to quickly change a routing path, tune a threshold, or inject a test value — without diving into node settings every time. A Control Node would act like a physical control panel inside n8n, making workflows faster to operate, easier to demo, and more readable at a glance. Especially useful for:

  • Manual overrides during live operations

  • A/B path testing without editing the workflow

  • Setting parameters (e.g. a confidence threshold for an AI step) visually and intuitively

  • Building workflows that non-technical team members can operate safely

2

The Toggle use case would be huge for managing workflow state during testing - right now I simulate it by writing a boolean to $getWorkflowStaticData('global') and checking it at IF branches, but a canvas-level control would be far cleaner. The Button variant would also be practical for workflows where you want a manual “approve and continue” step without exposing a full form UI.