Node-RED

# Fix list: Node-RED

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/node-red, the October 2026 research run, assessed 9 October 2026. Grade C, 61 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on Node-RED: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Schema & documentation, 41 out of 100, up to 9.6 more on the total

Why it scored 41: No OpenAPI file or other machine-readable contract was found on the site or in the repository (0). `llms.txt` returns 404 and the docs are served as HTML only (0). Each of the 20 documented methods has a one-line purpose and the permission it needs, with nothing on when to choose it, and routes for context, plugins, library and projects are in the source but not in the method list (9). A types page describes Node, Flow, Node Module and Node Set objects in prose tables. Node objects are open, with fields set by each node type, and the deployment type header has four listed values (6). Methods carry curl and JSON examples and a status code table, and the errors page lists six codes (11). The `Node-RED-API-Version` header selects `v1` or `v2`, and the changelog is public (15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## 2. Agent ergonomics, 44 out of 100, up to 9.1 more on the total

Why it scored 44: `GET /flow/:id` returns one tab, but `GET /flows` and `GET /nodes` return everything with no field selection or limit (8). No pagination or filtering on any method. An `Accept` header switches `/nodes` between JSON and HTML (3). Errors use standard status codes and a `code` and `message` body on 400, with 409 documented for a stale revision (14). No idempotency key. `rev` on `POST /flows` rejects a deploy over newer flows, and `PUT /flow/:id` is safe to repeat (12). Few required parameters and sensible defaults. The only clients are the `node-red-admin` CLI and the JavaScript module, with no SDK in a second language (7).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 3. Security & auth, 51 out of 100, up to 8.6 more on the total

Why it scored 51: Bearer tokens with scope `*` or `read`, per-user permissions by resource, revocation at `/auth/revoke` and a seven-day expiry. Tokens come from a username and password grant with no refresh (22). Ten off because the docs give `?access_token=` in the editor URL as the way to use a custom token (12). Read-only users, a read-only default user and per-resource write permissions. No approval step for a deploy or a module install, and `adminAuth` is off in the default settings file (12). The Admin API returns the owner's flow configuration and node metadata from npm. No guidance on untrusted content reaching an agent was found (7). An audit log of Admin API calls with user, path and IP address, off by default and written to the console logger (11). SECURITY.md gives a contact and escalation to the OpenJS Foundation CNA after six business days, and two advisories from 2021 are published. No security.txt, bug bounty or certification was found (9).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 4. Payments & pricing, 60 out of 100, up to 5 more on the total

Why it scored 60: Read with the self-hosted rule. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The software is free under Apache-2.0 and the project sells nothing, stated on the licence page without a login (20). Free to run with no card (20). An agent can install the npm package or start the Docker image and call the API with no signup (20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 5. Transparency & trust, 65 out of 100, up to 3.1 more on the total

Made of editorial 85, provenance 45.

Why it scored 65: Apache-2.0, copyright held by the OpenJS Foundation (30). For self-hosted use the only data that leaves the host is the opt-in telemetry report, and its page states the four fields sent, a 90-day limit on individual reports and that only core committers see raw data. The project has no privacy policy of its own, and the foundation's was not read (20). The release plan dates the maintenance start and end of life of each major version and limits breaking changes to one major a year. No notice period for Admin API changes was found (15). Telemetry is off until the user opts in, is documented field by field and has three ways to disable it (20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Endpoint on the vendor's domain:  is not on nodered.org (0 of 15)
- Terms of service: not found (0 of 10)
- Privacy policy: not found (0 of 10)
- Status page: not found (0 of 10)
- security.txt: not found (0 of 10)

## 6. Reliability, 90 out of 100, up to 2 more on the total

Why it scored 90: Graded as software the owner runs, on Node-RED 5.0.8. Official npm package `node-red` and Docker image `nodered/node-red`, with Node.js 22.9 or later required (20). Public GitHub Actions tests on Node 22 and 24, and the run on `main` for the 5.0.8 release on 8 October 2026 passed (25). 215 open issues and 122 open pull requests. Of six issues opened from 1 to 8 October, five carried `needs-triage` with no comment, though a crash reported on 8 October had a fix proposed the same day, and September's issues had one to eight comments (17). Major, minor and maintenance releases follow a written plan and 5.0.0 lists its breaking change. Two points off because 5.0.3, 5.0.4 and 5.0.6 each reverted a dependency update shipped in the release before (13). Version 5.0, with 1.0 released on 30 September 2019 (15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 7. Maintenance & community, 81 out of 100, up to 1.7 more on the total

Why it scored 81: 5.0.8 and 4.1.16 released on 8 October 2026 (30). 12 releases between 30 July and 8 October 2026 across 5.x and 4.x (20). Maintainers merge community fixes each month and September's issues were answered, but five of six issues from the first week of October were untriaged with no reply (17). No SDKs and no MCP server. The `node-red-admin` CLI is bundled and current, which earns part of the line (5). Dependencies are pinned and updated in most maintenance releases, CI runs on two Node.js versions, and Dependabot covers only the workflow actions (9).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- unchecked: the OpenJS Foundation privacy policy and terms of use linked from the site footer were not read, because they are a parent body's website documents
- unchecked: the forum at discourse.nodered.org and the Slack workspace were not read, so support responsiveness rests on GitHub issues alone
- unchecked: the Docker Hub page for `nodered/node-red` was not read. The image name comes from the project's Docker guide
- unchecked: https://nodered.org/docs/api/admin/methods/ failed with a connection error on one request and was not retried. The page's Markdown source in node-red/node-red.github.io was read instead
- Whether the 5.0.2 change to session messages (pull request 5883) and the September move to a patched copy of JSONata fixed security flaws. Neither has an advisory or a note in the changelog
- The lead named the vendor as OpenJS Foundation / Node-RED project and the interface as Admin HTTP API, flow HTTP endpoints and CLI. All three hold. The CLI manages nodes and has no command for flows
- The RDAP lookup through rdap.org followed a redirect to the registry's RDAP host before that host's robots.txt was read

## Weaknesses

- No OpenAPI file, `llms.txt` or SDK. The Admin API is documented as 20 hand-written pages on nodered.org
- `adminAuth` is commented out in the default settings file, so a fresh install has no authentication on the editor or the Admin API
- No pagination, filtering or field selection. `GET /flows` returns the whole flow configuration
- Access tokens come from a username and password grant, last seven days by default and cannot be refreshed
- Routes for context, plugins, library and projects exist in the source and are missing from the published method list

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- Call `GET /auth/login` first. An empty object means no authentication is set and every Admin API call is open
- Send `Node-RED-API-Version: v2` and the last `rev` on `POST /flows`, and re-read the flows on a 409
- Set `Node-RED-Deployment-Type` to `nodes` or `flows` to restart only what changed. The default `full` stops every node
- Prefer `GET /flow/:id` and `PUT /flow/:id` for one tab. `GET /flows` returns every node in the runtime
- Treat `flows.write` and `nodes.write` as code execution on the host. Function nodes run JavaScript and `POST /nodes` installs npm modules

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.