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Self-host n8n with Docker Compose

Workflow automation platform with 1,500+ integrations and AI agent capabilities.

n8n

postgres

postgres:18.3-alpine3.23

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

  1. Docker compose setup and file
    save the generated compose and env files.
  2. Secret generation
    create the random passwords n8n needs.
  3. Start n8n with Docker Compose
    bring the stack up and check it's healthy.

Requirements

You'll need these installed on the machine you're deploying to:

Docker

Packages n8n and everything it depends on into an isolated container, so it runs the same way on your machine as it does everywhere else.

Install guide

Docker Compose

Reads docker-compose.ymland starts everything in it together. Ships with Docker Desktop. On Linux servers it's usually a separate install.

Install guide

1. Docker compose setup and file

Create a folder for n8n and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — n8nitself and any supporting services, such as its database — along with the ports, volumes and environment variables each one uses. You'll also need an empty .env file in the same folder; Docker Compose reads it automatically and uses it to fill in the ${VARIABLE}references you'll see in the file below.

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 5678:5678
    environment:
      DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE: app
      DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST: localhost
      DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT: "5432"
      DB_POSTGRESDB_USER: app
      DB_TYPE: postgresdb
      N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE: "false"
      N8N_PORT: "5678"
    volumes:
      - data:/home/node/.n8n
      - cache:/home/node/.cache
      - tmp:/tmp
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - curl
        - -f
        - http://localhost:5678/
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
  postgres:
    image: postgres:18.3-alpine3.23
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: service:n8n
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: app
volumes:
  cache: null
  data: null
  tmp: null

Volumes

n8n stores its data in named Docker volumes, so it survives container restarts and updates:

  • data mounted at /home/node/.n8n
  • cache mounted at /home/node/.cache: n8n compiles static assets into ~/.cache on startup.
  • tmp mounted at /tmp: n8n data-table upload staging dir (/tmp/n8nDataTableUploads).

2. Secret generation

n8n needs a few randomly generated secrets — for example, database passwords or an internal session key — before it can start. These are referenced from docker-compose.ymlabove but don't live in it, so they need to end up in your .env file. Pick one of the two options below.

Generating secrets…

3. Start n8n with Docker Compose

From the folder with docker-compose.yml and .env, run:

Terminal

Start n8n and all its supporting services in the background.

docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the stack in the background so it keeps running after you close the terminal. Docker will pull the images the first time, which can take a minute or two.

To check on it afterwards: docker compose ps shows whether containers are healthy, and docker compose logs -f follows their logs if something looks wrong. Once it's running, open http://localhost:5678 in your browser.