approx

n8n community nodes for Approx — construction cost-estimation and quantity-takeoff automation.

Package Information

Released: 1 mo ago

Downloads: 41 weekly / 302 monthly

Latest Version: 0.8.1

Author: Approx

Available Nodes

Approx

Automate Approx construction cost-estimation and quantity-takeoff workflows.

Documentation

@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx

n8n community node for Approx — automate construction
cost-estimation and quantity-takeoff workflows.

Heads-up — breaking change in 0.5.0: the five previous nodes
(Approx Project, Approx Report, Approx Unit Price, Approx Authority,
Approx Template) have been consolidated into a single Approx node.
Every former node is now a Resource inside that node. The credential has
also been renamed (approxApi → approxOAuth2Api) and now uses n8n's
built-in OAuth2 client-credentials flow. See Migrating from 0.4.x.

Install
Requirements
Credentials
Resources and operations
Usage example: list projects, generate a report, download the ZIP
Sample success outputs
Migrating from 0.4.x
License
Support

Install

Self-hosted n8n

In the n8n UI go to Settings → Community Nodes → Install, enter:

@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx

…and click Install. Restart n8n if it doesn't reload automatically.

Or from the host shell:

npm install @approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx

n8n Cloud

The package will appear in the verified community catalogue once approved.

Requirements

The Approx Integrations API is a Workplace (organization) feature. Free
Approx accounts — accounts that do not belong to an Approx organization —
cannot use these nodes. Access is granted through the integrations:*
permissions on your Auth0 application, which Approx assigns per organization.
Without them every request, including the credential test, fails with
403 Forbidden.

Credentials

Approx authenticates with Auth0 Machine-to-Machine (client-credentials)
tokens. Ask your Approx contact for a client_id/client_secret issued by the
Approx Auth0 tenant and linked to your Approx organization.

In n8n: Credentials → New → Approx OAuth2 API.

Field	Required	Default	Description
Client ID	✅	—	Auth0 M2M application client id (inherited from OAuth2 API).
Client Secret	✅	—	Auth0 M2M application client secret (inherited from OAuth2 API).
Auth0 Domain	✅	`auth.approx.cloud`	Approx Auth0 tenant domain (no protocol).
Audience	✅	`https://approx.azurewebsites.net`	API audience configured in Auth0. Sent as `audience` in the token request body.
Base URL	✅	`https://approx.azurewebsites.net`	Approx API base URL (no trailing slash).

n8n handles fetching, caching and refreshing the bearer token — there is no
custom token code in this package. Click Save: n8n will issue a test
request to GET /api/integrations/projects?dqb=offset%3D0%26count%3D1 and confirm the
credential works.

If that test returns 403, the token was issued but carries none of the
integrations:* permissions — the account is on the free plan, or the
application has not been granted them. Ask your Approx administrator to link the
application to your organization and grant the permissions your workflows need.

Resources and operations

Every former node is now a Resource on the single Approx node. Choose the
resource, then the operation, then fill in the parameters.

Resource	Operations	Approx API endpoint(s)
Authority	Get Many, Get, Create, Update Name, Update Logo, Delete	`/api/integrations/authorities[/{id}[/name\|logo]]`
File	Download	`GET /api/integrations/files/{blobId}/download`
Original File	Get Many, Upload Many, Delete	`/api/integrations/projects/{projectId}/original-files[:bulk\|/{id}]`
Pricing	Get Many	`GET /api/integrations/pricing/libraries/{libraryId}/pricings`
Pricing Library	Get Many	`GET /api/integrations/pricing/libraries`
Project	Get Many, Get, Create, Update, Delete	`/api/integrations/projects[/{id}]`
Property	Get Many, Get, Create, Create Many, Update Name, Update Multiplier, Delete	`/api/integrations/projects/{projectId}/properties[…]`
Property Type	Get by Takeoff Template, Get by Project	`/api/integrations/templates/{takeoff/{id}\|projects/{id}}/property-types`
Report	Create, Get, Download	`/api/integrations/reports[/{id}[/download]]`
Report Template	Get Many	`GET /api/integrations/templates/takeoff/{id}/report-templates`
Static File	Get Many, Upload Many, Delete	`/api/integrations/projects/{projectId}/static-files[:bulk\|/{id}]`
Takeoff Template	Get Many, Get	`/api/integrations/templates/takeoff[/{id}]`
Work Group Type	Get Many	`GET /api/integrations/projects/{projectId}/work-group-types`

Filtering and paging

The four list endpoints — Project, Property, Pricing Library and Pricing — take a Filters
collection and a Query Options collection (Skip, Take, Order By). Both are mapped to the
single dqb parameter the Approx API resolves DynamicQueryBuilder options from:

?dqb=o%3DContains%26p%3DName%26v%3DTest%26s%3DName%2Casc%26offset%3D0%26count%3D50

Filters — each condition is a Property, an Operation, a Value, and a Logical Operator:

Field	Notes
Property	Picked from the properties that endpoint exposes. Set an expression to use one not listed.
Operation	`Equals`, `Not Equal`, `Contains`, `Starts With`, `Ends With`, `Greater Than`, `Greater Than Or Equal`, `Less Than`, `Less Than Or Equal`, `In`.
Value	The literal `null` tests for no value; `In` takes a comma-separated list; enum properties accept their name, e.g. `SingleLine`.
Logical Operator	How this condition joins to the next one. `And Also`, `Or Else`, `And`, `Or`, `Xor`.

Conditions combine left to right with no grouping, so A Or Else, B And Also, C evaluates
as (A or B) and C. The operator on the last condition is ignored.

Order By takes Property, optionally with asc or desc: Name desc. A direction other than
those two is rejected rather than silently sorted ascending.

Take is capped at 200 and defaults to 50. Both offset and count are always sent: if either
is missing the API applies neither, and — the part that bites — skips its own page-size cap, so an
unfiltered pricing list returns every row.

Property names and values are percent-encoded inside the expression before the whole thing is
encoded again as the dqb parameter, so a value containing & or = — R&D, say — survives
instead of being read as another DQB field. Parentheses are escaped too: the API reads a value
starting with ( as an Any/All sub-query.

Where is the older text form of Filters, kept for workflows built before this collection
existed: Property|Operation|Value, several separated by ;. It cannot express a logical operator,
so its conditions always combine with And Also. A value starting with o= is passed through as a
raw DQB expression, and cannot be combined with Filters.

Usage example: list projects, generate a report, download the ZIP

The workflow below walks the three most common Approx operations end-to-end:

Approx (Project: Get Many) — fetch the first 5 projects.
Approx (Report: Create) — queue a report for the first returned project.
Wait — give the report queue ~30 s to finish.
Approx (Report: Download) — download the generated ZIP into a binary
field called report.

Step-by-step (manual setup)

Add a Manual Trigger.
Add an Approx node:
- Credential: select your Approx OAuth2 API credential
- Resource: Project
- Operation: Get Many
- Query Options → Take: 5
Add another Approx node:
- Resource: Report
- Operation: Create
- Project ID: ={{ $json.id }} (expression — picks the id from the first node)
Add a Wait node — 30 seconds (Approx reports usually finish in
seconds; for big projects use the Report → Get operation in a loop with
If status === "Completed" instead).
Add a third Approx node:
- Resource: Report
- Operation: Download
- Report ID: ={{ $json.id }}
- Put Output File in Field: report

Execute the workflow. The last node's output will contain binary.report
holding the report ZIP, ready to be written to disk, uploaded to S3, sent over
email, etc.

Importable workflow JSON

Copy the snippet below and in n8n press Ctrl/Cmd + V on an empty canvas
(or use Import from Clipboard). Replace REPLACE_WITH_CREDENTIAL_ID with
the id n8n assigns to your saved Approx OAuth2 API credential.

{
  "name": "Approx — generate and download a report",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "parameters": {},
      "id": "1",
      "name": "When clicking 'Test workflow'",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.manualTrigger",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [240, 300]
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "resource": "project",
        "operation": "getMany",
        "queryOptions": { "take": 5 }
      },
      "id": "2",
      "name": "List 5 projects",
      "type": "@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx.approx",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [480, 300],
      "credentials": {
        "approxOAuth2Api": {
          "id": "REPLACE_WITH_CREDENTIAL_ID",
          "name": "Approx OAuth2 API"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "resource": "report",
        "operation": "create",
        "projectId": "={{ $json.id }}"
      },
      "id": "3",
      "name": "Queue report",
      "type": "@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx.approx",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [720, 300],
      "credentials": {
        "approxOAuth2Api": {
          "id": "REPLACE_WITH_CREDENTIAL_ID",
          "name": "Approx OAuth2 API"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "parameters": { "amount": 30, "unit": "seconds" },
      "id": "4",
      "name": "Wait 30s",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.wait",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [960, 300]
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "resource": "report",
        "operation": "download",
        "reportId": "={{ $json.id }}",
        "binaryPropertyName": "report"
      },
      "id": "5",
      "name": "Download report ZIP",
      "type": "@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx.approx",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [1200, 300],
      "credentials": {
        "approxOAuth2Api": {
          "id": "REPLACE_WITH_CREDENTIAL_ID",
          "name": "Approx OAuth2 API"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {
    "When clicking 'Test workflow'": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "List 5 projects", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    },
    "List 5 projects": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "Queue report", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    },
    "Queue report": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "Wait 30s", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    },
    "Wait 30s": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "Download report ZIP", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    }
  }
}

Sample success outputs

`Project: Get Many` (trimmed to one item)

{
  "id": "6d3a1f7e-1c2b-4f4c-9a7d-2b8d9d2f8a3e",
  "name": "Demo Villa — Antalya",
  "authorityId": "0b8e5d59-3f72-4d4a-9e0d-4f7e6f1c2a91",
  "takeoffTemplateId": "b3d20b6c-7d6f-4f02-9c54-3c1c1c5a4e22",
  "reportTemplateId": "f1b9c8e0-aa11-4af0-9c5d-5a2f3b4c6d70",
  "carriagePercentage": 0.04,
  "expandCustomPricings": false,
  "createdAt": "2026-05-21T08:14:33Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-30T14:02:11Z"
}

`Project: Create`

{
  "id": "8f9a2b1c-aa00-4bbb-8e9c-1234567890ab",
  "name": "New Office Block — Istanbul",
  "authorityId": "0b8e5d59-3f72-4d4a-9e0d-4f7e6f1c2a91",
  "takeoffTemplateId": "b3d20b6c-7d6f-4f02-9c54-3c1c1c5a4e22",
  "reportTemplateId": "f1b9c8e0-aa11-4af0-9c5d-5a2f3b4c6d70",
  "carriagePercentage": 0.04,
  "expandCustomPricings": false
}

`Report: Create`

{
  "id": "c7a4b6d2-9e1f-4c83-bd6e-7a8d9f0b1c23",
  "projectId": "6d3a1f7e-1c2b-4f4c-9a7d-2b8d9d2f8a3e",
  "status": "Queued",
  "createdAt": "2026-06-02T16:18:00Z"
}

`Report: Get` (polled later)

{
  "id": "c7a4b6d2-9e1f-4c83-bd6e-7a8d9f0b1c23",
  "projectId": "6d3a1f7e-1c2b-4f4c-9a7d-2b8d9d2f8a3e",
  "status": "Completed",
  "createdAt": "2026-06-02T16:18:00Z",
  "completedAt": "2026-06-02T16:18:22Z"
}

`Report: Download`

{
  "reportId": "c7a4b6d2-9e1f-4c83-bd6e-7a8d9f0b1c23",
  "filename": "report-c7a4b6d2-9e1f-4c83-bd6e-7a8d9f0b1c23.zip",
  "mimeType": "application/zip"
}

…plus a binary.report field containing the actual ZIP bytes (default field
name; configurable via Put Output File in Field).

`Pricing Library: Get Many` (one item)

{
  "id": "lib-2025-istanbul",
  "name": "İBB 2025 Birim Fiyat Listesi",
  "authorityId": "0b8e5d59-3f72-4d4a-9e0d-4f7e6f1c2a91",
  "culture": "tr-TR"
}

`Authority: Get Many` (one item)

{
  "id": "0b8e5d59-3f72-4d4a-9e0d-4f7e6f1c2a91",
  "name": "Çevre, Şehircilik ve İklim Değişikliği Bakanlığı",
  "createdAt": "2025-01-12T10:00:00Z"
}

`Takeoff Template: Get Many` (one item)

{
  "id": "b3d20b6c-7d6f-4f02-9c54-3c1c1c5a4e22",
  "name": "Konut — Standart Şablon",
  "culture": "tr-TR",
  "version": 3
}

Migrating from 0.4.x

Two breaking changes ship in 0.5.0; both are required to pass n8n community
verification.

1. One node instead of five

The previous five nodes are gone:

Old node	New resource (on the single `Approx` node)
Approx Project	`Project`, `Property`, `Work Group Type`, `Original File`, `Static File`, `File`
Approx Report	`Report`
Approx Unit Price	`Pricing`, `Pricing Library`
Approx Authority	`Authority`
Approx Template	`Takeoff Template`, `Report Template`, `Property Type`

In existing workflows, delete the old node and add the new Approx node in
its place — the operation names and parameter names are unchanged, so you can
copy values straight across.

2. Credential renamed and rewired to built-in OAuth2

The credential class is now ApproxOAuth2Api (internal name
approxOAuth2Api). n8n's built-in OAuth2 client-credentials grant is used —
no custom token code lives in this package any more.

You must recreate the credential (n8n cannot migrate between credential
types). Create a new Approx OAuth2 API credential with the same
Client ID, Client Secret, Auth0 Domain, Audience and Base URL
values, then re-pick it on each Approx node.

approx

Package Information

Available Nodes

Documentation

@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx

Contents

Install

Self-hosted n8n

n8n Cloud

Requirements

Credentials

Resources and operations

Filtering and paging

Usage example: list projects, generate a report, download the ZIP

Step-by-step (manual setup)

Importable workflow JSON

Sample success outputs

`Project: Get Many` (trimmed to one item)

`Project: Create`

`Report: Create`

`Report: Get` (polled later)

`Report: Download`

`Pricing Library: Get Many` (one item)

`Authority: Get Many` (one item)

`Takeoff Template: Get Many` (one item)

Migrating from 0.4.x

1. One node instead of five

2. Credential renamed and rewired to built-in OAuth2

License

Support

Discussion

approxInstall

Package Information

Available Nodes

Documentation

@approx-tech/n8n-nodes-approx

Contents

Install

Self-hosted n8n

n8n Cloud

Requirements

Credentials

Resources and operations

Filtering and paging

Usage example: list projects, generate a report, download the ZIP

Step-by-step (manual setup)

Importable workflow JSON

Sample success outputs

Project: Get Many (trimmed to one item)

Project: Create

Report: Create

Report: Get (polled later)

Report: Download

Pricing Library: Get Many (one item)

Authority: Get Many (one item)

Takeoff Template: Get Many (one item)

Migrating from 0.4.x

1. One node instead of five

2. Credential renamed and rewired to built-in OAuth2

License

Support

Discussion

approx

`Project: Get Many` (trimmed to one item)

`Project: Create`

`Report: Create`

`Report: Get` (polled later)

`Report: Download`

`Pricing Library: Get Many` (one item)

`Authority: Get Many` (one item)

`Takeoff Template: Get Many` (one item)