# n8n - Workflow Automation

![n8n.io - Workflow Automation](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/n8n/master/docs/images/n8n-logo.png)

n8n is a free node based "Open Source" (with Commons Clause)
Workflow Automation Tool. It can be self-hosted, easily extended, and
so also used with internal tools.

<a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/n8n/master/docs/images/n8n-screenshot.png"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/n8n/master/docs/images/n8n-screenshot.png" width="550" alt="n8n.io - Screenshot"></a>

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

## Demo

A short demo (< 3 min) which shows how to create a simple workflow which
automatically sends a new Slack notification every time a Github repository
received or lost a star:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdcf0yaz1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdcf0yaz1c)



## Start n8n in Docker

```
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  n8nio/n8n
```

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


## 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`

```
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  --init \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  -v ~/.n8n:/root/.n8n \
  n8nio/n8n \
  n8n start --tunnel
```


## Securing n8n

By default n8n can be accessed by everybody. This is OK if you have it only running
locally buy if you deploy it on a server which is accessible from the web you have
to make sure that n8n is protected!
Right now we have very basic protection via basic-auth in place. It can be activated
by setting the following environment variables:

```
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=<USER>
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=<PASSWORD>
```


## Persist data

The workflow data gets by default saved in an SQLite database in the user
folder (`/root/.n8n`). That folder also additionally contains the
settings like webhook URL and encryption key.

```
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  -v ~/.n8n:/root/.n8n \
  n8nio/n8n
```

### Start with other Database

By default n8n uses SQLite to save credentials, past executions and workflows.
n8n however also supports MongoDB and PostgresDB. To use them simply a few
environment variables have to be set.

It is important to still persist the data in the `/root/.n8` folder. The reason
is that it contains n8n user data. That is the name of the webhook
(in case) the n8n tunnel gets used and even more important the encryption key
for the credentials. If none gets found n8n creates automatically one on
startup. In case credentials are already saved with a different encryption key
it can not be used anymore as encrypting it is not possible anymore.


#### Use with MongoDB

Replace the following placeholders with the actual data:
 - MONGO_DATABASE
 - MONGO_HOST
 - MONGO_PORT
 - MONGO_USER
 - MONGO_PASSWORD

```
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
	-e DB_TYPE=mongodb \
	-e DB_MONGODB_CONNECTION_URL="mongodb://<MONGO_USER>:<MONGO_PASSWORD>@<MONGO_SERVER>:<MONGO_PORT>/<MONGO_DATABASE>" \
  -v ~/.n8n:/root/.n8n \
  n8nio/n8n \
  n8n start
```

A full working setup with docker-compose can be found [here](../../compose/withMongo/README.md)


#### Use with PostgresDB

Replace the following placeholders with the actual data:
 - POSTGRES_DATABASE
 - POSTGRES_HOST
 - POSTGRES_PASSWORD
 - POSTGRES_PORT
 - POSTGRES_USER

```
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
	-e DB_TYPE=postgresdb \
	-e DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=<POSTGRES_DATABASE> \
	-e DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=<POSTGRES_HOST> \
	-e DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=<POSTGRES_PASSWORD> \
	-e DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=<POSTGRES_PORT> \
	-e DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=<POSTGRES_USER> \
  -v ~/.n8n:/root/.n8n \
  n8nio/n8n \
  n8n start
```


## Passing Senstive Data via File

To avoid passing sensitive information via environment variables "_FILE" may be
appended to some environment variables. It will then load the data from a file
with the given name. That makes it possible to load data easily from
Docker- and Kubernetes-Secrets.

The following environment variables support file input:
 - DB_MONGODB_CONNECTION_URL
 - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE_FILE
 - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST_FILE
 - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD_FILE
 - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT_FILE
 - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER_FILE
 - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD_FILE
 - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER_FILE



## What does n8n mean and how do you pronounce it

**Short answer:** It means "nodemation"

**Long answer:** I get that question quite often (more often than I expected)
so decided it is probably best to answer it here. While looking for a
good name for the project with a free domain I realized very fast that all the
good ones I could think of were already taken. So, in the end, I choose
nodemation. "node-" in the sense that it uses a Node-View and that it uses
Node.js and "-mation" for "automation" what the project is supposed to help with.
Did however not like how long the name was and could not imagine writing
something that long every time in the CLI. That is when I then ended up on
"n8n". Sure does not work perfectly but does neither for Kubernetes (k8s) and
did not hear anybody complain there. So I guess it should be ok.



## License

n8n is licensed under **Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause**