Why does n8n always show [DEV] in the title even after global installation?

Questions
1

Hello community,

I installed n8n globally using npm install -g n8n on my Windows machine.
Whenever I run n8n, the editor opens, but the title bar always shows:

Workflows - n8n [DEV]

From what I understand, [DEV] usually appears when running n8n from source in development mode.
But in my case, I am not running from source, only the global installation.

Still, [DEV] is always visible.

My questions are:

  1. Why is [DEV] showing in the title even with the global installation?
  2. How can I make sure it runs in full production mode without showing [DEV]?

Thanks in advance!

3

How to run as “production mode”?

4

Please see these questions and the answers:

it appears both topics talk about changing a variable N8N_RELEASE_TYPE, which I found i a couple of places in the repository, for instance:

2 Likes
5

To remove the [DEV] label in n8n and run it in production mode:

Windows (PowerShell):

  1. Open PowerShell.
  2. Set the variable for the current session:
    $env:N8N_RELEASE_TYPE = “stable”
  3. Or set it permanently:
    setx N8N_RELEASE_TYPE “stable”
  4. Or set it manually:
    • Open Start menu → search “Environment Variables”
    • Click “Edit the system environment variables”
    • Click “Environment Variables…”
    • Under “User variables”, click “New”
    • Name: N8N_RELEASE_TYPE
    • Value: stable → OK
  5. Close and reopen PowerShell.
  6. Run n8n:
    n8n

Linux / macOS (bash or zsh):

  1. Open your terminal.
  2. Set the variable for the current session:
    export N8N_RELEASE_TYPE=stable
  3. Or set it permanently:
    echo ‘export N8N_RELEASE_TYPE=stable’ >> ~/.bashrc

    or if you use zsh:

    echo ‘export N8N_RELEASE_TYPE=stable’ >> ~/.zshrc
  4. Restart your terminal.
  5. Run n8n:
    n8n

After this, the [DEV] tag will disappear from the title bar.

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6

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