Environment variable installation

Available from n8n v2.21.0

On self-hosted n8n, you can manage the set of installed community packages from environment variables. n8n reconciles the installed packages against the list on every startup, installing missing packages, correcting versions, and uninstalling packages not in the list. Use this method to bootstrap an instance with a fixed set of packages, for example through a deployment pipeline.

Enabling this uninstalls packages that aren't in the list

The first time you start n8n with N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_MANAGED_BY_ENV=true, n8n uninstalls any currently-installed community packages that aren't included in N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES. If you already manage packages through the UI, review the Community nodes settings page and add the packages you want to keep to N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES before enabling this variable.

Configure

Set the following environment variables on your n8n instance, then restart:

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.

Community packages must be enabled

N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ENABLED must be true (the default). If community packages are disabled at the instance level, n8n ignores N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_MANAGED_BY_ENV and logs a warning on startup.

For example:

export N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_MANAGED_BY_ENV=true
export N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES='[{"name":"n8n-nodes-foo","version":"1.2.3"}]'

While N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_MANAGED_BY_ENV is true, the Community nodes settings page is read-only: you can't install, update, or uninstall packages from the UI.

Per-package fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	npm package name. You can include the version inline as <package-name>@<version>. If you do, don't also set the version field to a different value, n8n rejects conflicting versions.
version	string	No	Version specifier. If omitted, n8n looks the package up in the vetted-packages registry and uses that version; if the package isn't vetted, n8n installs whatever npm resolves and won't reconcile the version across restarts.
checksum	string	No	SHA-512 checksum (sha512-...) for the resolved tarball. Requires version to be set. n8n resolves the checksum automatically from the vetted registry when possible.

Example with all three fields:

[
  { "name": "n8n-nodes-foo", "version": "1.2.3" },
  { "name": "n8n-nodes-bar@0.5.0" },
  { "name": "n8n-nodes-baz", "version": "2.0.0", "checksum": "sha512-..." }
]

Unverified packages need a checksum

If a package isn't in the vetted-packages registry and N8N_UNVERIFIED_PACKAGES_ENABLED is false, n8n fails to start. Either pin a checksum for the package, set N8N_UNVERIFIED_PACKAGES_ENABLED=true, or pick a vetted package.

For the supported ways to set environment variables, see Configuration methods.

Manage packages

To add, remove, upgrade, or downgrade a package, edit N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES and restart n8n. n8n reconciles to the new list on the next startup.

Breaking changes in versions

Node developers may introduce breaking changes in new versions of their nodes. A breaking change is an update that breaks previous functionality. Be careful when changing versions. If a new version causes issues, set version back to the previous value and restart n8n to roll back.