As we all know currently this is era of AI and it has long way to go. In recent times, we are observing lots of AI models, software and tools are launched. One of them is n8n which is also one of the strong contender here.

Introduction

The n8n is a workflow automation platform which helps to connect API, AI models and applications. It provides the UI dashboard where you can easily create the workflows.

In this post, we are installing the n8n in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and using the community edition in Docker.

Purpose

We are using this setup for our practice and testing purpose. So this will be very quick and less secure. We strongly suggest to follow this method for install n8n in your test machine.

Steps to install n8n

Follow the given below steps to install n8n.

First install the docker in the Ubuntu machine.

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Create docker volume.

docker volume create n8n_data

Create a directory where inside we will create docker compose file.

mkdir n8n
cd n8n

Create a file called docker-compose.yml in n8n directory

services:
  n8n:
    image: docker.io/n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: always
    extra_hosts:
      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
    environment:
      - N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=false
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n

volumes:
  n8n_data:

Now run the docker compose command

docker compose up -d

Check the n8n container running in the system. Use the following command.

docker ps

Now open the web browser and type your VMs ip address with port number 5678 (n8n listening on this port number)

For example: http://192.168.1.6:5678

Now you will see setup page. Fill all the details, set the password. In next page, it will again ask some question. In ths final page you will see the n8n Dashbaord.

Now your setup is ready. You can start exploring this setup and do the practice.