n8n/packages/cli/README.md

# n8n - Workflow Automation Tool

![n8n.io - Workflow Automation](https://n8n.io/n8n-logo.png)

n8n is a tool which allows to easily and fast automate different taks.

Is still in beta so can not guarantee that everything works perfectly. Also
is there currently not much documentation. That will hopefully change soon.


## Give n8n a spin

To simply spin up n8n to have a look and give it spin you can simply run:

```bash
npx n8n
```

It will then download everything which is needed and start n8n.

You can then access n8n by opening:
[http://localhost:5678](http://localhost:5678)


## Installation

To fully install n8n globally execute:

```bash
npm install n8n -g
```

## Start

After the installation n8n can be started by simply typing in:

```bash
n8n
# or
n8n start
```


### Start with tunnel

To be able to use webhooks which all triggers of external services like Github
rely on n8n has to be reachable from the web. To make that easy n8n has a
special tunnel service which redirects requests from our servers to your local
n8n instance.

To use it simply start n8n with `--tunnel`

```bash
n8n start --tunnel
```


### Start with MongoDB as Database

By default n8n uses SQLite to save credentials, past executions and workflows.
To use MongoDB instead you can either overwrite the default configuration on
startup like this:

```bash
n8n start \
  --NODE_CONFIG='{\"database\":{\"type\":\"mongodb\", \"mongodbConfig\":{\"url\":\"mongodb://MONGO_USER:MONGO_PASSWORD@MONGO_SERVER:MONGO_PORT/MONGO_DATABASE\"}}}'"
```

Or you can provide a custom configuration file by copying the default
configuration file [(config/defaults.ts)](config/default.ts) and then set the
path to it as environment variable `NODE_CONFIG_DIR`.

For example like this:
```bash
export NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/path-to-my-config
```

In the file change then the
setting under `database.type` from `sqlite` to `mongodb` and adjust the Mongo
connection URL  `database.mongodbConfig` accordingly.


n8n will then read your custom configuration and use MongoDB instead.


## License

[Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause](LICENSE.md)


## Development

When developing n8n can be started with `npm run start:dev`.
It will then automatically restart n8n every time a file changes.