n8n projects

This is how I have set up my private n8n environment, hosted on my NixOS desktop machine.
It is possible, and in most cases prefered, to host your n8n on a server. That could be either remote or local, depending on your setup.
In my case, I just run it on my private computer for personal purposes.

1. Edit your /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

      {
        virtualisation.docker.enable = true; 
      
      # Or add "docker" in your already existing "extraGroups" list, if you want sudo access 
      users.users..extraGroups = [ "docker" ]; } 
    

bash:

 
      $ sudo nixos-rebuild switch 
    

2. Create a folder for n8n’s data

bash:

 
      $ mkdir -p ~/.n8n 

Run n8n, bash:

(reminder that it is important to include the \ in each line, otherwise it will run the commands prematurely)

 
      $ docker run -it --rm \ 
      --name n8n \ 
      -p 5678:5678 \ 
      -v ~/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n \ 
      n8nio/n8n 
      
      # "-p 5678:5678" exposes the editor on http://localhost:5678 
      # "-v ~/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n" mounts a persistent volume so your workflows survive container restarts 
    

You can now visit your n8n environment at http://localhost:5678 in your browser

3. Keep it running in the background, autorun when rebooting machine

Create a directory for your setup, bash:

 
      $ mkdir -p ~/n8n-docker 
      
      # move to the new directory 
      $ cd ~/n8n-docker 
    

Create a docker-compose.yml file in ~/n8n-docker:

 
services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    volumes:
      - ~/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n
    

If you need to manually start n8n for some reason, run this bash command:

 
      $ docker compose up -d 
    

To check if docker is running:

 
      $ docker ps 
    

If done correctly, your n8n is hosted and run through docker, and should start automatically with your machine. This exact setup works for my NixOS 24.11

This guide helps you connect your n8n to various Google Drive APIs...

      *** UNDER CONSTRUCTION ***