How can I get Git backup of workflows and credentials to push to github (fails to push)

I’m using Git backup of workflows and credentials | n8n workflow template

The “export workflows” node runs properly.
The “export credentials” node runs properly.
The “git add” node runs properly.
The “git commit” node runs properly
The “git push” node FAILS.

I just don’t understand how to configure credentials so that “push to GitHub” works.

I’ve tried perplexity but just go around and around in circles.

Does anyone have an idiots guide or know a site for idiots to help me figure out this last step. It seems like it should not be this hard.

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: Selfhosted 1.82.3
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): Docker
  • Operating system:

Do you use the github nodes? That’s a part of my backup workflow.
I first use “get: file” operation to check if the file already exists. (Error if not).
After that i either update or create a file in github.
The update and create operations do automatically commit and push the file.


If git add and git commit work in an Execute Command node, but git push fails, it likely means Git doesn’t have the necessary permissions to access the GitHub repository.

Since you’re running n8n with Docker, you can probably fix this by either:

  • mounting your .ssh directory into the container (e.g., -v ~/.ssh:/home/node/.ssh)
  • or creating your own SSH keys and SSH configurations and mounting them into the container (e.g., -v ./ssh_for_n8n:/home/node/.ssh)

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