Nodes

File-based configuration

You can add _FILE to individual variables to provide their configuration in a separate file. Refer to Keeping sensitive data in separate files for more details.

This page lists the environment variables configuration options for managing nodes in n8n, including specifying which nodes to load or exclude, importing built-in or external modules in the Code node, enabling community nodes, and configuring node-specific limits.

Nodes and community node settings

Variable	Type	Default	Description
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_AUTH_TOKEN	String	-	Authentication token for a private npm registry. Use with N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_REGISTRY to authenticate requests when installing community nodes from a private registry.
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ENABLED	Boolean	true	Enables (true) or disables (false) the functionality to install and load community nodes. If set to false, neither verified nor unverified community packages will be available, regardless of their individual settings.
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_PREVENT_LOADING	Boolean	false	Prevents (true) or allows (false) loading installed community nodes on instance startup. Use this if a faulty node prevents the instance from starting.
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_REGISTRY	String	https://registry.npmjs.org	NPM registry URL to pull community packages from (license required).
N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS	String	-	Specify the path to directories containing your custom nodes.
N8N_PYTHON_ENABLED	Boolean	true	Whether to enable Python execution on the Code node.
N8N_UNVERIFIED_PACKAGES_ENABLED	Boolean	true	When N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ENABLED is true, this variable controls whether to enable the installation and use of unverified community nodes from an NPM registry (true) or not (false).
N8N_VERIFIED_PACKAGES_ENABLED	Boolean	true	When N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ENABLED is true, this variable controls whether to show verified community nodes in the nodes panel for installation and use (true) or to hide them (false).
NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_BUILTIN	String	-	Permit users to import specific built-in modules in the Code node. Use * to allow all. n8n disables importing modules by default.
NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL	String	-	Permit users to import specific external modules (from n8n/node_modules) in the Code node. n8n disables importing modules by default.
NODES_ERROR_TRIGGER_TYPE	String	n8n-nodes-base.errorTrigger	Specify which node type to use as Error Trigger.
NODES_EXCLUDE	Array of strings	[\"n8n-nodes-base.executeCommand\", \"n8n-nodes-base.localFileTrigger\"]	Specify which nodes not to load. For example, to block nodes that can be a security risk if users aren't trustworthy: NODES_EXCLUDE: "[\"n8n-nodes-base.executeCommand\", \"@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.lmChatDeepSeek\"]". To enable all nodes, specify NODES_EXCLUDE: "[]".
NODES_INCLUDE	Array of strings	-	Specify which nodes to load.
NODES_MERGE_SQL_SANDBOX_MEMORY_LIMIT_MB	Number	64	Memory limit in MB for the Merge node's SQL sandbox. Increase this if Combine by SQL fails with large datasets and your instance has enough memory available.

Compression node settings

Variable	Type	Default	Description
N8N_COMPRESSION_NODE_MAX_DECOMPRESSED_SIZE_BYTES	Number	2147483648	Maximum total decompressed output size in bytes. Default is 2 GiB.
N8N_COMPRESSION_NODE_MAX_ZIP_ENTRIES	Number	5000	Maximum number of entries allowed in a ZIP archive.

Manage installed community packages

Available from n8n v2.21.0

Pre-provision installed community packages from environment variables. See Manage instance settings using environment variables for the *_MANAGED_BY_ENV pattern.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_MANAGED_BY_ENV	Boolean	false	Set to true to manage installed community packages from environment variables. When true, n8n reconciles the installed packages against N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES on every startup, installing missing packages, correcting versions, and uninstalling any currently-installed packages that aren't in the list. The Community nodes settings page becomes read-only: you can't install, update, or uninstall packages from the UI while this is enabled.
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES	JSON string	-	JSON array of community packages to install. Each entry is an object with a name (required) and optional version and checksum fields. You can also embed the version in the name as <package-name>@<version>. See environment variable installation for the full per-field reference.