How to back up data tables programmatically?

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

Hello everyone,

I have been getting into n8n and its data-tables feature recently—still learning the ropes, mind you—and I’ve been wondering, how one would go about backing up their data tables. I’m using the backup template from here: Back Up Your n8n Workflows To Github | n8n workflow template to back up my workflows, but this doesn’t back up the data tables along with them.

As far as I can tell from the API reference | n8n Docs , there isn’t a way to access the data tables using the API either, so I’m a bit stumped. I don’t have that many tables right now, so it’s manageable to do it manually, but I imagine in a year or so that number will have grown to an amount that would be annoying to back up myself.

Is there something I’m missing here? Or can anyone please provide some pointers on how to create these backups and store them in a private Git repo as well?

Best regards!

Please share your workflow

Not related to a workflow.

Share the output returned by the last node

n/a

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 1.122.4
  • Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): probably default
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): docker
  • Operating system: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
2

This is the method n8n themselves suggest for Docker + SQLite setups.

If your n8n volume looks like:

/home/user/n8n/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n

Then your database table data lives in:

/home/user/n8n/.n8n/database.sqlite

Backing that up means backing up everything:

  • Data Tables

  • Workflows

  • Credentials

  • Executions

  • Variables

  • Settings

You can simply copy this file into your Git repo, or into any backup system.

Example command:

cp /home/user/n8n/.n8n/database.sqlite /path/to/backup/location/
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