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Contributing to n8n

Great that you are here and you want to contribute to n8n

Contents

Code of Conduct

This project and everyone participating in it are governed by the Code of Conduct which can be found in the file CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please report unacceptable behavior to [email protected].

Directory Structure

n8n is split up in different modules which are all in a single mono repository.

The most important directories:

Development Setup

If you want to change or extend n8n you have to make sure that all needed dependencies are installed and the packages get linked correctly. Here a short guide on how that can be done:

Requirements

Build Tools

The packages which n8n uses depend on a few build tools:

Linux:

apt-get install -y build-essential python

Windows:

npm install -g windows-build-tools

lerna

n8n is split up in different modules which are all in a single mono repository. To facilitate those modules management, lerna gets used. It automatically sets up file-links between modules which depend on each other.

So for the setup to work correctly lerna has to be installed globally like this:

npm install -g lerna

Actual n8n setup

IMPORTANT: All the steps bellow have to get executed at least once to get the development setup up and running!

Now that everything n8n requires to run is installed the actual n8n code can be checked out and set up:

  1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n.git

  2. Go into repository folder

    cd n8n

  3. Install all dependencies of all modules and link them together:

    lerna bootstrap --hoist

  4. Build all the code:

    npm run build

Start

To start n8n execute:

npm run start

Development Cycle

While iterating on n8n modules code, you can run npm run dev. It will then automatically build your code, restart the backend and refresh the frontend (editor-ui) on every change you make.

  1. Start n8n in development mode: 
    npm run dev
  2. hack, hack, hack
  3. Check if everything still runs in production mode 
    npm run build
npm run start
  4. Create tests
  5. Run all tests 
    npm run test
  6. Commit code and create pull request

Test suite

The tests can be started via:

npm run test

If that gets executed in one of the package folders it will only run the tests of this package. If it gets executed in the n8n-root folder it will run all tests of all packages.

Create Custom Nodes

It is very easy to create own nodes for n8n. More information about that can be found in the documentation of "n8n-node-dev" which is a small CLI which helps with n8n-node-development.

To n8n-node-dev

Create a new node to contribute to n8n

If you want to create a node which should be added to n8n follow these steps:

  1. Read the information in the n8n-node-dev package as it contains a lot of generic information about node development.

  2. Create the n8n development setup like described above and start n8n in develoment mode npm run dev

  3. Create a new folder for the new node. For a service named "Example" the folder would be called: /packages/nodes-base/nodes/Example

  4. If there is already a similar node simply copy the existing one in the new folder and rename it. If none exists yet, create a boilerplate node with n8n-node-dev and copy that one in the folder.

  5. If the node needs credentials because it has to authenticate with an API or similar create new ones. Existing ones can be found in folder /packages/nodes-base/credentials. Also there it is the easiest to simply copy existing similar ones.

  6. Add the path to the new node (and optionally credentials) to package.json of nodes-base. It already contains a property n8n with its own keys credentials and nodes.

  7. Add icon for the node (60x60 PNG)

  8. Start n8n. The new node will then be available via the editor UI and can be tested.

When developing n8n must get restarted and the browser reloaded every time parameters of a node change (like new ones added, removed or changed). Only then will the new data be loaded and the node displayed correctly.

If only the code of the node changes (the execute method) than it is not needed as each workflow automatically starts a new process and so will always load the latest code.

Checklist before submitting a new node

If you'd like to submit a new node, please go through the following checklist. This will help us be quicker to review and merge your PR.

  • Make failing requests to the API to ensure that the errors get displayed correctly (like malformed requests or requests with invalid credentials)
  • Ensure that the default values do not change and that the parameters do not get renamed, as it would break the existing workflows of the users
  • Ensure that all the top-level parameters use camelCase
  • Ensure that all the options are ordered alphabetically, unless a different order is needed for a specific reason
  • Ensure that the parameters have the correct type
  • Make sure that the file-name and the Class name are identical (case sensitive). The name under "description" in the node-code should also be identical (except that it starts with a lower-case letter and that it will never have a space)
  • Names of Trigger-Nodes always have to end with "Trigger"
  • Add credentials and nodes to the package.json file in alphanumerical order
  • Use tabs in all the files except in the package.json file, where 4-spaces have to get used
  • To make it as simple as possible for the users, check other similar nodes to ensure that they all behave similarly
  • Try to add as few parameters as possible on the main level to ensure that the node doesn't appear overwhelming. It should only contain the required parameters. All the other ones should be hidden on lower levels as "Additional Parameters" or "Options"
  • Create only one node per service which can do everything via "Resource" and "Options" and not a separate one for each possible operation.

Extend Documentation

All the files which get used in the n8n documentation on https://docs.n8n.io can be found in the /docs folder. So all changes and additions can directly be made in there

That the markdown docs look pretty we use docsify. It is possible to test locally how it looks like rendered with the following commands:

# 1. Install docisify
npm i docsify-cli -g

# 2. Go into n8n folder (the same folder which contains this file). For example:
cd /data/n8n

# 3. Start docsificy
docsify serve ./docs

Contributor License Agreement

That we do not have any potential problems later it is sadly necessary to sign a Contributor License Agreement. That can be done literally with the push of a button.

We used the most simple one that exists. It is from Indie Open Source which uses plain English and is literally just a few lines long.

A bot will automatically comment on the pull request once it got opened asking for the agreement to be signed. Before it did not get signed it is sadly not possible to merge it in.