User management

User management in n8n allows you to invite people to work in your n8n instance.

This document describes how to configure your n8n instance to support user management, and the steps to start inviting users.

Refer to the main User management guide for more information about usage, including:

• Managing users

• Account types

• Best practices

For LDAP setup information, refer to LDAP.

For SAML setup information, refer to SAML.

Unsupported user management methods

In version 1.0, n8n:

• Removed support for basic auth and JWT

• Removed the N8N_USER_MANAGEMENT_DISABLED environment variable. No supported way to disable the login screen exists in recent versions of n8n, including for local or development use. If you need to simplify login for local development, consider using a password manager, setting a simple local password, or scripting the standard login flow.

Setup

There are three stages to set up user management in n8n:

1. Configure your n8n instance to use your SMTP server.

2. Start n8n and follow the setup steps in the app.

3. Invite users.

Step one: SMTP

n8n recommends setting up an SMTP server, for user invites and password resets.

Optional from 0.210.1

From version 0.210.1 onward, this step is optional. You can choose to manually copy and send invite links instead of setting up SMTP. Note that if you skip this step, users can't reset passwords.

Get the following information from your SMTP provider:

• Server name

• SMTP username

• SMTP password

• SMTP sender name

To set up SMTP with n8n, configure the SMTP environment variables for your n8n instance. For information on how to set environment variables, refer to Configuration

Variable	Type	Description	Required?
N8N_EMAIL_MODE	string	smtp	Required
N8N_SMTP_HOST	string	your_SMTP_server_name	Required
N8N_SMTP_PORT	number	your_SMTP_server_port Default is 465.	Optional
N8N_SMTP_USER	string	your_SMTP_username	Optional
N8N_SMTP_PASS	string	your_SMTP_password	Optional
N8N_SMTP_OAUTH_SERVICE_CLIENT	string	your_OAuth_service_client	Optional
N8N_SMTP_OAUTH_PRIVATE_KEY	string	your_OAuth_private_key	Optional
N8N_SMTP_SENDER	string	Sender email address. You can optionally include the sender name. Example with name: n8n <[e-mail]>	Required
N8N_SMTP_SSL	boolean	Whether to use SSL for SMTP (true) or not (false). Defaults to true.	Optional
N8N_UM_EMAIL_TEMPLATES_INVITE	string	Full path to your HTML email template. This overrides the default template for invite emails.	Optional
N8N_UM_EMAIL_TEMPLATES_PWRESET	string	Full path to your HTML email template. This overrides the default template for password reset emails.	Optional
N8N_UM_EMAIL_TEMPLATES_WORKFLOW_SHARED	String	Overrides the default HTML template for notifying users that a credential was shared. Provide the full path to the template.	Optional
N8N_UM_EMAIL_TEMPLATES_CREDENTIALS_SHARED	String	Overrides the default HTML template for notifying users that a credential was shared. Provide the full path to the template.	Optional
N8N_UM_EMAIL_TEMPLATES_PROJECT_SHARED	String	Overrides the default HTML template for notifying users that a project was shared. Provide the full path to the template.	Optional

If your n8n instance is already running, you need to restart it to enable the new SMTP settings.

More configuration options

There are more configuration options available as environment variables. Refer to Environment variables for a list. These include options to disable tags, workflow templates, and the personalization survey, if you don't want your users to see them.

New to SMTP?

If you're not familiar with SMTP, this blog post by SendGrid offers a short introduction, while Wikipedia's Simple Mail Transfer Protocol article provides more detailed technical background.

Step two: In-app setup

When you set up user management for the first time, you create an owner account.

1. Open n8n. The app displays a signup screen.

2. Enter your details. Your password must be at least eight characters, including at least one number and one capital letter.

3. Click Next. n8n logs you in with your new owner account.

Pre-provision the instance owner from environment variables

Available from n8n v2.17.0

You can pre-provision the instance owner from environment variables instead of going through the in-app setup. Set N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_MANAGED_BY_ENV to true and provide the owner details. See Manage instance settings using environment variables for how the activation pattern works.

To change the owner email after setup, see Change the instance owner email for self-hosted n8n.

N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_PASSWORD_HASH must be a bcrypt hash

This variable expects a pre-hashed bcrypt value. Setting a plaintext password breaks login.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_MANAGED_BY_ENV	Boolean	false	Set to true to manage the instance owner from environment variables. When true, n8n overwrites the instance owner details below on every startup, locks the UI control for that user, and rejects API writes.
N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_EMAIL	String	-	Email address for the instance owner.
N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_FIRST_NAME	String	-	First name for the instance owner.
N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_LAST_NAME	String	-	Last name for the instance owner.
N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_PASSWORD_HASH	String	-	Bcrypt hash of the instance owner's password. Setting a plaintext password breaks login.

Owner email must be unique

N8N_INSTANCE_OWNER_EMAIL must not already belong to another user on the instance. This setting updates the existing instance owner account; it doesn't transfer ownership to another existing user or merge user accounts. To use an email address that already belongs to another user, change or delete that user first so the email becomes available.

Step three: Invite users

You can now invite other people to your n8n instance.

1. Sign into your workspace with your owner account. (If you are in the Admin Panel open your Workspace from the Dashboard)

2. Click the three dots next to your user icon at the bottom left and click Settings. n8n opens your Personal settings page.

3. Click Users to go to the Users page.

4. Click Invite.

5. Enter the new user's email address.

6. Click Invite user. n8n sends an email with a link for the new user to join.