Installation errors when setting up for custom node developement

Questions
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1

Describe the problem/error/question

I am trying to develop a custom node. As such, I am following the youtube tutorial and the docs from n8n.
I have cloned the n8n-nodes-starter repo named as n8n-my-nodes into a windows directory.

I have installed n8n version 1.9.0 specifically to follow exactly the directives in the youtube tutorial (I have also tried with lts) like this:

npm install n8n@1.9.0 -g

after:

npm list -g

this is the output:

C:\Users\aprestamo\AppData\Roaming\npm
+-- n8n@1.9.0
+-- npm@10.2.0
`-- yarn@1.22.19

I tested n8n server and it works good.

Then I navigated into n8n-my-nodes and executed:

npm install

which outputed the following:

npm WARN ERESOLVE overriding peer dependency
npm WARN While resolving: n8n-core@1.9.1
npm WARN Found: n8n-nodes-base@1.9.3
npm WARN node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base
npm WARN   n8n-nodes-base@"1.9.3" from n8n@1.9.3
npm WARN   node_modules/n8n
npm WARN     n8n@"^1.9.0" from the root project
npm WARN
npm WARN Could not resolve dependency:
npm WARN peer n8n-nodes-base@"1.9.2" from n8n-core@1.9.1
npm WARN node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-core
npm WARN   n8n-core@"1.9.1" from n8n@1.9.3
npm WARN   node_modules/n8n
npm WARN
npm WARN Conflicting peer dependency: n8n-nodes-base@1.9.2
npm WARN node_modules/n8n-nodes-base
npm WARN   peer n8n-nodes-base@"1.9.2" from n8n-core@1.9.1
npm WARN   node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-core
npm WARN     n8n-core@"1.9.1" from n8n@1.9.3
npm WARN     node_modules/n8n
npm WARN deprecated debuglog@1.0.1: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated @npmcli/move-file@1.1.2: This functionality has been moved to @npmcli/fs
npm WARN deprecated source-map-url@0.4.1: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated string-similarity@4.0.4: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated urix@0.1.0: Please see https://github.com/lydell/urix#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated json-schema-ref-parser@9.0.9: Please switch to @apidevtools/json-schema-ref-parser
npm WARN deprecated source-map-resolve@0.5.3: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-resolve#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated chokidar@2.1.8: Chokidar 2 does not receive security updates since 2019. Upgrade to chokidar 3 with 15x fewer dependencies
npm WARN deprecated resolve-url@0.2.1: https://github.com/lydell/resolve-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated @oclif/command@1.8.36: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated dommatrix@1.0.3: dommatrix is no longer maintained. Please use @thednp/dommatrix.
npm WARN deprecated @oclif/help@1.0.15: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated @oclif/errors@1.3.6: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated @oclif/config@1.18.16: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated @oclif/config@1.18.17: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.
npm WARN deprecated @oclif/parser@3.8.17: Package no longer supported. Contact Support at https://www.npmjs.com/support for more info.

I then reinstalled with flag --legacy-peer-deps with no warnings other that the deprecated ones.

after this, I executed the following command insde n8n-my-nodes folder:
npm link

This outputed no errors, and 1 package added.
after executing:

npm list -g

it outputed

C:\Users\aprestamo\AppData\Roaming\npm
+-- n8n-my-nodes@0.1.0 -> .\..\..\..\Documents\repos\n8n-my-nodes
+-- n8n@1.9.0
+-- npm@10.2.0
`-- yarn@1.22.19

now i navigate to C:\Users\aprestamo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\n8n
and execute:

npm link n8n-my-nodes
this outputs some warnings related to deprecated

I start my n8n instance again with

n8n start

i reload editor and i cant see the example nodes.

i execute npm list (inside the n8n folder):
which outputed some packages. I will show a fragment of the output, where the n8n-my-nodes is displayed:

+-- luxon@3.4.3
+-- mysql2@2.3.3
+-- n8n-core@1.9.0
+-- n8n-editor-ui@1.9.0
+-- n8n-my-nodes@0.1.0 extraneous -> .\..\..\..\..\..\Documents\repos\n8n-my-nodes
+-- n8n-nodes-base@1.9.0
+-- n8n-workflow@1.9.0
+-- nanoid@3.3.6
+-- nodemailer@6.9.6
+-- oauth-1.0a@2.2.6

What is wrong?

node version:
v18.18.2
npm version:
10.2.0
n8n version installed with npm:
1.9.0

3

Hi @Adrian_Prestamo, welcome to the community!

I am sorry you are having trouble. Perhaps @marcus from our node engineering team can help with this one? Iirc he’s also developing on Windows.

5

Hello,
I just found another user with the exact same problem.

I’ve also tried doing the same in linux but had the exact same problem.

He opened a issue in the nodes-starter repo.
Here’s the link repo

6

Hey @Adrian_Prestamo,
instead of linking your node in C:\Users\aprestamo\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\n8n you should be linking it in the ~/.n8n/custom/ directory. In your case this should be:

cd C:\Users\aprestamo\.n8n\custom
npm link n8n-my-nodes

If the custom folder does not exist just create one. Does that work for you?

7

Hello, @marcus

Thank you for you time and answer.
I have tried as you said but it didnt work.
It took a while when I did the link command

it didnt output any errors other than the previous deprecated warnings.
It added a lot of packages (like 1.3k)
I then ran n8n start but the starter nodes are still not shown.

I will try now to do it in a clean xubuntu image.
I am also going to try and unisntall n8n npm package and install lts (i was using 1.9.0 trying to follow the video)

I will keep you updated.