How to bundle custom nodes in Docker-Container

Questions
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1

Hello, i have written a custom node and want to bundle it in my docker container. I have found this topic: Installing custom nodes in Docker configuration

However i did copy the compiled module to the custom path as described in the other forum post.

// Deploy it to my local directory
npm run build && npm link
// Copy it to my docker directory
cp /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/n8n/n8n-nodes-shopware /my-docker/volume-mount/.n8n/custom

And this is my docker-compose configuration for the volume mount. I can see that the directory contains my custom node exactly like it does with my local deployment.

    volumes:
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n

However i can not find my custom module n8n-nodes-shopware. The only difference i can see is that a explicitly call npm link in my local environment. Do i have to explicitly load the custom module in my docker-setup, maybe extend the docker-entrypoint.sh-file?

Local:

npm link n8n-nodes-shopware && n8n start

Docker (docker-entrypoint.sh)

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then
  # Got started with arguments
  COMMAND=$1;

  if [[ "$COMMAND" == "n8n" ]]; then
    shift
    (cd packages/cli; exec node ./bin/n8n "$@")
  else
    exec node "$@"
  fi

else
# Got started without arguments
cd packages/cli; exec node ./bin/n8n
fi
2

Hm, in the past an npm install command in the Dockerfile would be the way to go. But tbh, I don’t know what the currently suggested “official” approach to this is.

Perhaps @marcus can take a look once he’s back next week?

4

What do you mean with npm install would be the way to go? Do you have an example of how this would be done with a custom module? I would take any solution which works.

5

I didn’t mean anything specify by it - it’s just how I have added npm modules in the past (adding the required npm install command to my Dockerfile) but our docker images have changed a lot since, so I am not sure if this is still applicable.

Have you tried out the approach described in our docs (this one: Install private nodes - n8n Documentation) and did you run into any trouble with this?

6

Hey @azngeek,
I just tried installing our n8n-nodes-starter into the .n8n/custom home directory and it worked. After running npm run build I copied the contents of the dist folder into .n8n/custom and restarted n8n.

My .n8n/custom folder looked like this.

image
image915Ă—600 17.2 KB

I was able to add our example node from n8n-nodes-starter.

image
image1341Ă—795 29.8 KB

Did you try using the dist folder content after npm run build?

2 Likes
7

Hi @marcus, I would really like to get that working at my side too.

I tried to use the N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS environment variable and put in my local folder, which contain custom nodes. I tried with a folder type inside and outside the docker container but the nodes are not showing up.

I just add the environment variable and started the docker stack/container (running in queue mode).
Is there anything missing? How do I get the nodes working from the UI?