n8n/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to n8n

Great that you are here and you want to contribute to n8n

Contents

• Contributing to n8n
  • Contents
  • Code of conduct
  • Directory structure
  • Development setup
    • Requirements
      • Node.js
      • pnpm
        • pnpm workspaces
      • corepack
      • Build tools
    • Actual n8n setup
    • Start
  • Development cycle
    • Test suite
  • Releasing
  • Create custom nodes
  • Extend documentation
  • Contributor License Agreement

Code of conduct

This project and everyone participating in it are governed by the Code of Conduct which can be found in the file CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please report unacceptable behavior to jan@n8n.io.

Directory structure

n8n is split up in different modules which are all in a single mono repository.

The most important directories:

• /docker/image - Dockerfiles to create n8n containers
• /docker/compose - Examples Docker Setups
• /packages - The different n8n modules
• /packages/cli - CLI code to run front- & backend
• /packages/core - Core code which handles workflow execution, active webhooks and workflows. Contact n8n before starting on any changes here
• /packages/design-system - Vue frontend components
• /packages/editor-ui - Vue frontend workflow editor
• /packages/node-dev - CLI to create new n8n-nodes
• /packages/nodes-base - Base n8n nodes
• /packages/workflow - Workflow code with interfaces which get used by front- & backend

Development setup

If you want to change or extend n8n you have to make sure that all needed dependencies are installed and the packages get linked correctly. Here a short guide on how that can be done:

Requirements

Node.js

Node.js version 16.9 or newer is required for development purposes.

pnpm

pnpm version 7.18 or newer is required for development purposes. We recommend installing it with corepack.

pnpm workspaces

n8n is split up in different modules which are all in a single mono repository. To facilitate the module management, pnpm workspaces are used. This automatically sets up file-links between modules which depend on each other.

corepack

We recommend enabling Node.js corepack with corepack enable.

With Node.js v16.17 or newer, you can install the latest version of pnpm: corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate. If you use an older version install at least version 7.18 of pnpm via: corepack prepare pnpm@7.18.0 --activate.

IMPORTANT: If you have installed Node.js via homebrew, you'll need to run brew install corepack, since homebrew explicitly removes npm and corepack from the node formula.

IMPORTANT: If you are on windows, you'd need to run corepack enable and corepack prepare pnpm --activate in a terminal as an administrator.

Build tools

The packages which n8n uses depend on a few build tools:

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install -y build-essential python

CentOS:

yum install gcc gcc-c++ make

Windows:

npm add -g windows-build-tools

MacOS:

No additional packages required.

Actual n8n setup

IMPORTANT: All the steps below have to get executed at least once to get the development setup up and running!

Now that everything n8n requires to run is installed the actual n8n code can be checked out and set up:

1. Fork the n8n repository

2. Clone your forked repository

   git clone https://github.com/<your_github_username>/n8n.git
   

3. Go into repository folder

   cd n8n
   

4. Add the original n8n repository as upstream to your forked repository

   git remote add upstream https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n.git
   

5. Install all dependencies of all modules and link them together:

   pnpm install
   

6. Build all the code:

   pnpm build
   

Start

To start n8n execute:

pnpm start

To start n8n with tunnel:

./packages/cli/bin/n8n start --tunnel

Development cycle

While iterating on n8n modules code, you can run pnpm dev. It will then automatically build your code, restart the backend and refresh the frontend (editor-ui) on every change you make.

1. Start n8n in development mode:

   pnpm dev
   

2. Hack, hack, hack
3. Check if everything still runs in production mode

   pnpm build
   pnpm start
   

4. Create tests
5. Run all tests

   pnpm test
   

6. Commit code and create a pull request

Test suite

The tests can be started via:

pnpm test

If that gets executed in one of the package folders it will only run the tests of this package. If it gets executed in the n8n-root folder it will run all tests of all packages.

Releasing

To start a release, trigger this workflow with the SemVer release type, and select a branch to cut this release from. This workflow will then

1. Bump versions of packages that have changed or have dependencies that have changed
2. Update the Changelog
3. Create a new branch called release/${VERSION}, and
4. Create a new pull-request to track any further changes that need to be included in this release

Once ready to release, simply merge the pull-request. This triggers another workflow, that will

1. Build and publish the packages that have a new version in this release
2. Create a new tag, and GitHub release from squashed release commit
3. Merge the squashed release commit back into master

Create custom nodes

Learn about building nodes to create custom nodes for n8n. You can create community nodes and make them available using npm.

Extend documentation

The repository for the n8n documentation on docs.n8n.io can be found here.

Contributor License Agreement

That we do not have any potential problems later it is sadly necessary to sign a Contributor License Agreement. That can be done literally with the push of a button.

We used the most simple one that exists. It is from Indie Open Source which uses plain English and is literally only a few lines long.

A bot will automatically comment on the pull request once it got opened asking for the agreement to be signed. Before it did not get signed it is sadly not possible to merge it in.