Getting Started with n8n

This example shows how to run a local n8n service using docker-compose.

Prerequisites

• Git
• Docker
• Docker-Compose Only needed for older versions of Docker

Uh oh. You have a newer version of Docker (> 4.41) that only supports the newer docker compose plugin, but all the scripts in this repo depend on docker-compose - what to do? There's a solution for MacOS! Run the following commands to create an executable script that will invoke docker compose when docker-compose is requested.

sudo touch /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
echo 'docker compose --compatibility "$@"' | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Because Docker's running with "compatibility" you won't have access to some of the nice features that docker compose supports like automatically showing logs after starting a container.

Instructions

Step 1. Clone the repo

Clone the repo to your local machine by running the following command:

git clone https://github.com/bitovi/n8n-getting-started.git

Or if you insist on SSH

git clone git@github.com:bitovi/n8n-getting-started.git

Step 2. Start the service

Start the docker-compose service by running the following command:

docker-compose up --build

Step 3. Validate the service is running

For older versions of Docker watch the logs to ensure the service is running:

docker-compose logs -f

The tail of the logs should show the following message:

Editor is now accessible via:
https://localhost:5678/

Step 4. Access the service

Open a browser and navigate to the following URL: https://localhost:5678/

Note: we use self-signed certificates for local development to enable Oauth callbacks for 3rd party integrations, e.g. Slack.

Next Steps

This repo contains folders with additional docker-compose files for other services that can be run in conjunction with n8n.

To use these additional services use the following command:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f <Service>/docker-compose.yml up

Where <Service> is the name of the service you want to run. For example, to run n8n with Postgres, use the following command:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f Postgres/docker-compose.yml up

For convenience, a wrapper script has been added to make this less clunky. The ./up command will startup n8n and takes a list of additional services to run with it.

./up Postgres

Adminer

Adminer is a database management tool that can be used to manage the databases used by n8n. To access Adminer, navigate to the following URL: http://localhost:8080/

The credentials are pulled directly from the database environment variables. For example, if you are using Postgres, the credentials are:

System: Postgres
Server: pg-n8n
Username: n8n
Password: password
Database: n8n

Additional Tools (Optional)

The main services you will need are n8n and Postgres, but you can also run additional tools to enhance your n8n experience. You can verify deployment of the following:

• LangFuse at localhost:3001 (create a local account)

  • Create .env-langfuse from the example (/Langfuse/env-langfuse.example)
  • Create .env-pg-langfuse from the example (/Langfuse/env-pg-langfuse.example)
  • Run docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f Langfuse/docker-compose.yml up -d

• Grafana at localhost:3002 (user: admin / password: grafana)

  • Run docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f Grafana/docker-compose.yml up -d

• Prometheus at localhost:9090

  • Run docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f Prometheus/docker-compose.yml up -d

• Qdrant at localhost:6333/dashboard

  • Run docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f Qdrant/docker-compose.yml up -d
  • Go ahead and create an api key and n8n credential while you’re at it
  • Define your own api key in Qdrant by clicking the key in the right of the top menu

Conclusion

Have fun n8n-ing!