Set up your development environment

This document lists the essential dependencies for developing a node, as well as guidance on setting up your editor.

Requirements

To build and test a node, you need:

• Node.js and npm. Minimum version Node 16. You can find instructions on how to install both using nvm (Node Version Manager) for Linux, Mac, and WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) here. For Windows users, refer to Microsoft's guide to Install NodeJS on Windows.
• A local instance of n8n. You can install n8n with npm install n8n -g, then follow the steps in Run your node locally to test your node.

You should also have git installed. This allows you to clone and use the n8n-node-starter.

Editor setup

n8n recommends using VS Code as your editor.

Install these extensions:

• ESLint
• EditorConfig
• Prettier

By using VS Code and these extensions, you get access to the n8n node linter's warnings as you code.