Quickstart

You can run n8n both locally and remotely. There are three different ways in which you can get started with n8n.

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Run n8n with n8n.cloud

While n8n.cloud and n8n are the same in terms of features, n8n.cloud provides conveniences such as:

Not having to set up and maintain your n8n instance
Managed OAuth for authentication
Easily upgrading to the newest n8n versions

If this option is for you, sign up for an n8n.cloud account.

Run n8n locally

Using npx

If you just want to try out n8n without installing it, run it with npx:

npx n8n

This command will download everything that is needed to start n8n. You can then access n8n and start building workflows by opening http://localhost:5678.

Using npm

If you want to install n8n globally, use npm:

npm install n8n -g

After the installation, start n8n by running:

n8n
# or
n8n start

Using Docker

If you do not want to install n8n, you can also start it using Docker:

docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  n8nio/n8n

Be aware that all the data will be lost once the Docker container gets removed. To keep the data, mount the ~/.n8n folder:

docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  -v ~/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n \
  n8nio/n8n

n8n also offers a Docker image for Raspberry Pi: n8nio/n8n:latest-rpi.

More information about the Docker setup can be found in the README file of the Docker Image.

Starting n8n with tunnel (post-installation)

::: danger This is only meant for local development and testing. It should not be used in production. :::

To be able to use webhooks for trigger nodes of external services like GitHub, n8n has to be reachable from the web. To make that easy, n8n has a special tunnel service, which redirects requests from our servers to your local n8n instance.

If you installed n8n with npm, start n8n with --tunnel by running:

n8n start --tunnel

If you are running n8n with Docker, start n8n with --tunnel by running:

docker run -it --rm \
	--name n8n \
	-p 5678:5678 \
	-v ~/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n \
	n8nio/n8n \
	n8n start --tunnel

In case you run into issues with the installation, check out the troubleshooting page or ask for help in the community forum.

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