Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
27 lines (20 loc) · 3 KB

NOTES.md

File metadata and controls

27 lines (20 loc) · 3 KB

Notes on n8n-desktop

  • Confirmed working on: 32-bit Win 8.1, 64-bit Win 10, 64-bit Win 11, Intel/M1 Mac w/macOS 10.14.6 to 11.6 as of 8101cba (Nov 4 launch)

General notes

  • Processes: Starting n8n desktop launches an init process that starts n8n at 5679, waits for it to be available, and launches the Electron main process, which creates a renderer process (Chromium instance). The only case where there is a second, third, etc. renderer process is when duplicating a workflow. Closing the Chromium instance throws an error that aborts the init process, bringing down all other processes as well - there is probably a more elegant way to do this. n8n desktop does not run in the background after being closed, by design.
  • Port: n8n.one requires port 5679 to be free. You can configure the port in n8n-desktop.env. This port is protected by default with basic auth.
  • Default env vars: n8n desktop's env vars are generated at and read from ~/.n8n/n8n-desktop.env or C:\Users\<user>\.n8n. View them here: https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n-one/blob/main/defaultEnv.js
  • Shared DB: n8n desktop uses by default the same sqlite DB as vanilla n8n. To switch to PG or MySQL, add the relevant env vars in n8n-desktop.env, e.g. https://docs.n8n.io/reference/data/database.html#postgresdb
  • Permissions: If you run n8n desktop as a user with certain permissions, those permissions apply to anything n8n desktop can do, e.g. if the user cannot write to the root dir, neither will the Write File node.
  • Unsupported nodes: Kafka nodes are unsupported (kafkajs breaks build) and so is Edit Image node (requires separate install of GraphicsMagick).
  • Logging to file: If you set N8N_LOG_OUTPUT=file and N8N_LOG_FILE_LOCATION=n8n.log, then the logs will be written to ~/.n8n/n8n-desktop-logs/n8n.log or C:\Users\<user>\.n8n\n8n-desktop-logs\n8n.log

Win-specific notes

  • Installing: Run the installer to install n8n desktop at C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\n8n-desktop. It also creates a cache at C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\n8n-desktop
  • Uninstalling: Run the uninstaller at the install dir. Uninstalling does not affect the .n8n dir or the cache dir.
  • Windows Security screen: If you see a Windows security screen titled Windows protected your PC, please click on More Info and then on Run Anyway. If the Microsoft malware scan was successful, this security screen should not be shown.
  • Windows Defender Firewall: If you see a Windows Defender Firewall dialog titled Windows Defender Firewall has blocked some features of this app, please click on Allow access.
  • Updating: Uninstall the old version, download the new version and install version. (Pending to test if it is possible to reinstall without uninstalling first.)
  • Min Win version: 32-bit Win 8.1 (there might be even older supported versions)

Mac-specific notes

  • Updating: Trash n8n.app, redownload and rerun.
  • Min macOS version: Mojave 10.14.6 (there might be even older supported versions)