n8n Auto-Updater via GitHub Actions

Seamlessly update your n8n Docker Compose instance on a remote server using GitHub Actions — automatically or with a click. Perfect for devs, teams, and solo automators.

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🚀 What is this?

This is a ready-to-use GitHub Actions workflow that connects to your remote server via SSH and runs docker compose pull && down && up -d to update your self-hosted n8n instance.

• 🧠 Smart: no scripts to write
• 🖱️ One-click: run from GitHub UI
• 🔁 Auto-update: runs on push to main (or your preferred branch)
• 🔐 Secure: SSH key-based authentication

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⚡ Quick Start for Everyone

Just want it to work? Clone this repo and go:

git clone https://github.com/wmbalex/n8n-docker-updater.git
cd n8n-docker-updater

1. Go to GitHub ➔ Create a new repo (Public or Private)
2. Push this code to your own GitHub repo:

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:YOUR_USERNAME/n8n-docker-updater.git
git push -u origin main

3. Add GitHub Secrets (see below)
4. Hit "Run Workflow" → Done 🎉

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🧪 Test the Updater

Once you've added the required GitHub secrets, head to the Actions tab and:

• Select the Deploy n8n workflow
• Click Run workflow
• Watch it update your n8n container in seconds! 🚀

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📁 Repo Structure

n8n-docker-updater/
├── README.md
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── deploy.yml

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🛠 How It Works

1. GitHub Actions uses a private SSH key to connect to your server
2. It runs docker compose commands to update your n8n container
3. You trigger it manually or when pushing code/config changes to your repo

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📦 Requirements

On your server

• Docker & Docker Compose installed
• n8n running via Docker Compose (e.g. from n8n-io/n8n/docker-compose)
• Public SSH key added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

On your GitHub repo

• Use this repo or copy .github/workflows/deploy.yml
• Add your secrets (see next section)

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🔐 Setup (One-Time)

1. Generate SSH key

On your local machine:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "github-actions-deploy" -f github_n8n_deploy_key

• Save the private key (for GitHub)
• Add the public key to your server: ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

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2. Add GitHub Repository Secrets

Go to your repo ➔ Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions ➔ Add these:

Name	Value
N8N_SERVER_IP	Your server IP address (e.g. 123.123.12.12)
N8N_SERVER_USER	SSH user (e.g. root or ubuntu)
N8N_DEPLOY_KEY	Contents of the private SSH key you just generated

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✅ How to Use

Manual Trigger

1. Go to Actions tab
2. Select Deploy n8n workflow
3. Click Run workflow

Automatic Trigger

• Push any commit to main (or configured branch)
• Workflow will run and update your n8n instance

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🌐 Example: Docker Compose Folder Structure

If you followed n8n's Docker guide, your layout might look like:

/root/n8n/
├── docker-compose.yml
├── .env
└── data/

Make sure the workflow cds into the correct folder (/root/n8n or wherever you host it).

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💡 Tips

• ✅ Use a dedicated SSH key just for GitHub Actions
• ✅ Restrict the key to a non-root user with limited privileges
• 🛑 Never commit your private key
• 🕓 Add a cron trigger for scheduled auto-updates (optional)
• 🔔 Add Telegram/Slack notifications with a second step (advanced)

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🔮 Planned Features

Here are a few cool future ideas you (or contributors) might develop:

• 📆 Scheduled nightly updates (cron job)
• 🔔 Telegram/Slack/Webhook notifications after update
• 💥 Docker Compose fallback auto-recovery if update fails
• ✅ Workflow status badge for GitHub README
• 🌐 Multi-environment support (dev/staging/prod)
• 📈 Metrics log to track uptime/deploys (e.g. with Google Sheets or InfluxDB)
• 🌙 Dark/light themed logs with output formatting

Have a feature idea? Open an issue or submit a PR 🚀

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🤝 Contributing

PRs welcome! This updater is a helpful companion to n8n-io/n8n, not an official project.

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🙏 Donate

If this saved you time or headaches, consider supporting the project 💖

→ Never donate $10 in Crypto to anybody

Your support keeps open-source flowing 🙏

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📜 License

MIT

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Made with ❤️ by @wmbalex