# Are some NPM packages incompatible?

**URL:** <https://community.n8n.io/t/are-some-npm-packages-incompatible/209821>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** deployment, npm, docker\
**Created:** [October 22, 2025, 10:50am UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/are-some-npm-packages-incompatible/209821 "2025-10-22T10:50:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CsOliver003](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/csoliver003/32/132703_2.png) [@CsOliver003](https://community.n8n.io/u/CsOliver003)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2025, 10:50am UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/are-some-npm-packages-incompatible/209821/1 "2025-10-22T10:50:37Z")

</div>

## Describe the problem

I have an n8n instance running in docker. I added a few npm packages to try out if they work normally.

Here is my command for adding the packages in the docker:

```bash
RUN npm install -g mongodb mysql apexcharts markdown-it markdown-parser pdf-parser pdfjs redis exceljs

```

All the npm packages can be found inside the image that gets created, but when I go into n8n, a few of them don’t work as I expect them. For example if I call the mongodb package it works fine.

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/original/3X/5/5/55acb74d4bb90487f2408bad76b8f6d6bce8a50b.png)

But if I call exceljs it returns an error.

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/original/3X/b/7/b75b76392fa14998694727cbce5a885de7ef74c6.png)

It is clear that the npm package gets recognized, because you can see it in the stack trace. Another type of error I get is with pdf-parser.

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/original/3X/5/7/570d358efbe177739759f75463ae4b6c8b7cc0c4.png)

When I tried these same packages in a normal js file outside of n8n, they ran fine.

So my question would be if there is something that defines what npm packages can be added to n8n? Is there a workaround to adding these packages?

## Please share your workflow

## Information on your n8n setup

- **n8n version: 1.115.3**
- **Database (default: SQLite): Postgres**
- **Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): Docker**
- **Operating system: Windows 11**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/system/32/195824_2.png) [@system](https://community.n8n.io/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 10:50am UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/are-some-npm-packages-incompatible/209821/2 "2026-01-20T10:50:43Z")

</div>

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