Need to update minimum compatible Node.js version in documentation

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

I’m new to n8n and am trying to create a custom node. I followed the docs and tried to use the n8n-node tool to build a new node. It’s failing no matter what I try. I tried installing n8n and n8n-cli locally and globally. I tried using npm and pnpm. The error seems to come from the n8n-node package files themselves.

Issue raised here: Starter build fails - ERR_REQUIRE_ESM · Issue #102 · n8n-io/n8n-nodes-starter

What is the error message (if any)?

adibudithi@ubuntu:~/projects/n8n-node-flotorch-project$ npm create /node@latest
Error: require() of ES Module /home/adibudithi/.npm/_npx/c6d9473d98af90ab/node_modules/change-case/dist/index.js
from /home/adibudithi/.npm/_npx/c6d9473d98af90ab/node_modules//node-cli/dist/utils/filesystem.js not supported.
Instead change the require of index.js in/home/adibudithi/.npm/_npx/c6d9473d98af90ab/node_modules//node-cli/dist/utils/filesystem.js to a dynamicimport() which is available in all CommonJS modules.
Code: ERR_REQUIRE_ESM
npm ERR! code 1
npm ERR! path /home/adibudithi/projects/n8n-node-flotorch-project
npm ERR! command failed
npm ERR! command sh -c create-node

Please share your workflow

No workflow yet…

Share the output returned by the last node

No output either…

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 1.117.3
  • Database (default: SQLite): default
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): npm
  • Operating system: Windows Subsystem for Linux (Ubuntu)
2

I cloned the n8n-nodes-starter repo instead. Now I’m getting a similar error message when trying to build my node. I haven’t even changed anything yet!

adibudithi@ubuntu:~/projects/n8n-nodes-starter$ npm run build

> n8n-nodes-<...>@0.1.0 build
> n8n-node build

    Error: require() of ES Module /home/adibudithi/projects/n8n-nodes-starter/node_modules/change-case/dist/index.js from
    /home/adibudithi/projects/n8n-nodes-starter/node_modules/@n8n/node-cli/dist/utils/filesystem.js not supported.
    Instead change the require of index.js in /home/adibudithi/projects/n8n-nodes-starter/node_modules/@n8n/node-cli/dist/utils/filesystem.js
    to a dynamic import() which is available in all CommonJS modules.
    Code: ERR_REQUIRE_ESM

Somebody please help!

3

I tried downgrading change-case to a CommonJS-compatible version too. No luck…

npm install [email protected]

4

Sorry for the commotion! This worked for me when I updated to the latest Node.js version. However, I was previously on 18.19.1, which should be compatible according to the docs (minimum version 18.17.0).

Tutorial: Build a declarative-style node | n8n Docs