Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): docker
Operating system: ubuntu 24.x server
The documentation does state that it’s available for use in the .envs and shows examples, but then it links to files in the EMBED only version; so am curious if it’s just restricted only to EMBED licence, and enterprise/community cannot use hooks.
I just did a quick reconfiguration of a community edition instance running in docker and added EXTERNAL_HOOK_FILES=/data/hooks1.js with the example hooks file mapped to that location in the container. n8n started up with no complaints about the license type. When I tried to activate a workflow I got the “Active workflow limit reached.” message, so the backend hook in the example executed too.
Perhaps hooks are just documented within the EMBED license section because they are most useful in that context. The documentation really isn’t very clear on the matter.
I essentially gave up getting the hooks to work and just forked a new version instead which is able to do what we want. Tried hooking into the ready function but it never actually triggered.
I did setup the docker as per the configuration instructions and set the hooks accordingly but other than maybe the one where workflow starts I just can’t get it to listen to any other hooks.
But hey, nothing wrong with forking and building my own functionality and nodes lol
Thanks! I do wish they’d document hooks better tho!!