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134 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
134 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
# n8n - Workflow Automation Tool
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n8n is a free node based "Open Source" (with Commons Clause)
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Workflow Automation Tool. It can be self-hosted, easily extended, and
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so also used with internal tools.
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<a href="https://n8n.io/n8n-screenshot.png"><img src="https://n8n.io/n8n-screenshot.png" width="550" alt="n8n.io - Screenshot"></a>
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Is still in beta so can not guarantee that everything works perfectly. Also
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is there currently not much documentation. That will hopefully change soon.
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## Demo
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A short demo (< 3 min) which shows how to create a simple workflow which
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automatically sends a new Slack notification every time a Github repository
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received or lost a star:
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdcf0yaz1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdcf0yaz1c)
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## Give n8n a spin
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To simply spin up n8n to have a look and give it spin you can simply run:
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```bash
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npx n8n
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```
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It will then download everything which is needed and start n8n.
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You can then access n8n by opening:
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[http://localhost:5678](http://localhost:5678)
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## Installation
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To fully install n8n globally execute:
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```bash
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npm install n8n -g
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```
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## Start
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After the installation n8n can be started by simply typing in:
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```bash
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n8n
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# or
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n8n start
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```
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### Start with tunnel
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To be able to use webhooks which all triggers of external services like Github
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rely on n8n has to be reachable from the web. To make that easy n8n has a
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special tunnel service which redirects requests from our servers to your local
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n8n instance.
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To use it simply start n8n with `--tunnel`
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```bash
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n8n start --tunnel
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```
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### Start with MongoDB as Database
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By default n8n uses SQLite to save credentials, past executions and workflows.
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To use MongoDB instead you can either overwrite the default configuration on
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startup like this:
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```bash
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n8n start \
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--NODE_CONFIG='{\"database\":{\"type\":\"mongodb\", \"mongodbConfig\":{\"url\":\"mongodb://MONGO_USER:MONGO_PASSWORD@MONGO_SERVER:MONGO_PORT/MONGO_DATABASE\"}}}'"
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```
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Or you can provide a custom configuration file by copying the default
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configuration file [(config/defaults.ts)](https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/blob/master/packages/cli/config/default.ts).
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Make sure the file is also called `default.ts` and then set the path of the
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parent directory as environment variable `NODE_CONFIG_DIR`.
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For example like this:
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```bash
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export NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/directory-containing-config-file
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```
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Change in the config file the value under `database.type` from `sqlite`
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to `mongodb` and adjust the Mongo connection URL
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`database.mongodbConfig` accordingly.
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n8n will then read your custom configuration and use MongoDB instead.
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## Execute Workflow from CLI
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Workflows can not just be started by triggers, webhooks or manually via the
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Editor it is also possible to execute them directly via the CLI.
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Execute a saved workflow by its ID:
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```bash
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n8n execute --id <ID>
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```
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Execute a workflow from a workflow file:
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```bash
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n8n execute --file <WORKFLOW_FILE>
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```
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## Create Custom Nodes
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It is very easy to create own nodes for n8n. More information about that can
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be found in the documentation of "n8n-node-dev" which is a small CLI which
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helps with n8n-node-development.
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[To n8n-node-dev](https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/tree/master/packages/node-dev)
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## License
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[Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause](https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/blob/master/packages/cli/LICENSE.md)
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## Development
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When developing n8n can be started with `npm run start:dev`.
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It will then automatically restart n8n every time a file changes.
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