๐Ÿ“ข Monitor n8n releases and get notifications for new versions ๐Ÿ†•

This workflow automatically monitors n8nโ€™s release channels (latest and beta) and sends you email notifications whenever a new version is published. It also reads the version of your current n8n instance, allowing you to integrate automatic updates and ensure you never miss a release.

Who is this for

This workflow is designed for n8n users who want to stay informed and up to date with new releases and features without manually checking for updates, especially those managing their own instances who need to plan upgrades and review release notes.

How it works

The workflow performs the following steps:

  • Fetches version information from the npm registry (latest and beta releases)
  • Identifies only new versions by deduplication
  • Retrieves release notes from GitHub for any newly detected version
  • Converts Markdown to HTML for email template formatting
  • Sends a styled email notification including the release name, version tag, your current version, and the complete release notes

Setup

  • Configure your n8n instance URL (Set my_n8n_url) to detect your current version (optional โ€” can be left blank)
  • Connect and authorize the Gmail account used to send emails
  • Update the recipient email address in the Gmail node

Requirements

  • A Gmail account for sending emails

Customization tips

  • Adjust the schedule trigger if hourly checks are too frequent
  • Modify the release channel (e.g., โ€œlatestโ€ or โ€œbetaโ€) if you want to track a different tag
  • Change the npm registry link if you want to monitor a different package
  • Customize the email template/styling in the Gmail node
  • Add additional notification channels (Slack, Discord, etc.) alongside or instead of email
  • Extend this workflow to automatically update your n8n instance when a new release becomes available
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Thanks, I did something similar here:

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Hi!

Thank you for the workflow. Iโ€™ve adapted it for my setup using IMAP instead of Gmail. However, Iโ€™ve noticed that /rest/settings no longer returns the {{ $json.body_1.data.versionCli }}. Is there a workaround for this?

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Hi @Pixelexpertin

Yes, this is no longer supported unfortunately,

For Cloud: Thereโ€™s no programmatic way to fetch the version automatically AFAIK, The workaround is to manually store your version in a db or a global variable and update it each time you upgrade..

For Self-hosted: You can use the Execute Command node to run:

n8n --version

This will return the current version directly,

Just keep in mind that the Execute Command node is disabled by default in n8n v2.0+, so youโ€™ll need to re-enable it first.

This is how I currently monitor the new versions:

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