Can I develop on a remote n8n instance?

Questions
1

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 1.103.2
  • Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): Docker
  • Operating system: Debian (Docker host)

Note: I am brand new to n8n, having searched for a way to automate a data flow between my self-hosted services. The usage will certainly expand as I learn but so far I am a complete beginner. Apologies if the question is obvious.

I would like to use my local vscode (on my laptop) to edit the Code Blocks on my remote, docker-powered instance of n8n.

I searched for an extension (the one I found – GitHub - ivov/n8n-utils: VSCode extension with utilities for n8n development – is apparently abandoned and does not have the “Launch” feature after installation) and for other solutions in the forum and elsewhere. It seems that the preferred way is to edit the files locally (either truly locally, or by mapping the volume via smb or similar) but it is not clear whether there is any hot reload of locally edited file.

I will test all of this but would prefer to get some insight before starting to do major configurations, to discover that there is a ready-to-use solution, or that it won’t work.

2

There is no direct extension that I know if for doing this type thing, but i usually use cursor to write any complex code i need and then build it into the Code node, however having said that, if youre going to use n8n, you will not need to write a lot of code. The whole point is to build workflows using low code and get most of the processing and logic done using nodes, not so much code

3

Thank you fo the insight. I still expect to write some code (when transforming or filtering data, mostly) and wanted to leverage the vscode ease of coding (highlighting, formatting, ESLint, …), even for short pieces of code.

4

The code node has the basic highlighting from vscode. It’s gotten better recently

The code node is actually less efficient than using built in nodes for formatting/filtering, so try using the built in tools unless it’s really something that’s much easier in code.

My personal rule of thumb is that I’ll use code for any filter/parsing that will take more than two or three nodes to accomplish

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