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Tools & Extensions#

Essential n8n Tools#

Official n8n Tools#

n8n Desktop App#

  • n8n Desktop - Native desktop application for local development
  • Features: Local execution, offline work, better performance
  • Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

n8n CLI Tools#

  • n8n CLI - Command-line interface
  • Installation: npm install -g n8n
  • Usage: Local development, automation, CI/CD

n8n Cloud#

  • n8n Cloud - Managed hosting solution
  • Features: Zero setup, automatic updates, scaling
  • Plans: Free tier available

Development Tools#

Code Editors & IDEs#

Visual Studio Code Extensions: - n8n Workflow Visualizer - Visualize workflows in VS Code - JSON Tools - JSON formatting and validation - REST Client - Test APIs directly in VS Code - YAML - YAML language support

Other Editors: - Insomnia - API testing and development - Postman - API development environment - Bruno - Open-source API client

Version Control#

Git Tools: - GitHub Desktop - Git GUI client - GitKraken - Advanced Git client - Sourcetree - Free Git client

n8n Workflow Version Control: - n8n-backup - Backup workflows to Git - n8n-workflow-cli - Command-line workflow management

Node Development Tools#

Custom Node Development#

Development Environment: - Node.js - JavaScript runtime (v18+) - npm - Package manager - TypeScript - Type-safe JavaScript

n8n Node Development: - n8n-nodes-dev - Development tools for custom nodes - create-n8n-node - Node scaffolding tool - n8n Node Documentation - Official development guide

Testing Tools#

Monitoring & Analytics#

Application Monitoring#

Open Source: - Grafana - Dashboards and visualization - Prometheus - Metrics collection - InfluxDB - Time series database - ElasticSearch - Search and analytics

Commercial: - DataDog - Application performance monitoring - New Relic - Full-stack observability - Sentry - Error tracking and monitoring

n8n Specific Monitoring#

Database Tools#

Database Management#

GUI Tools: - pgAdmin - PostgreSQL administration - MySQL Workbench - MySQL development - DBeaver - Universal database tool - TablePlus - Modern database management

Cloud Databases: - Supabase - Open source Firebase alternative - PlanetScale - Serverless MySQL platform - MongoDB Atlas - Cloud MongoDB - AWS RDS - Managed relational databases

API Development & Testing#

API Testing Tools#

Desktop Applications: - Insomnia - API client and design tool - Postman - API development platform - Paw - Advanced API tool for Mac - HTTPie Desktop - User-friendly API client

Command Line: - curl - Command-line HTTP client - HTTPie - User-friendly HTTP client - wget - Network downloader

API Documentation#

Deployment & Infrastructure#

Container Tools#

Docker: - Docker Desktop - Local container development - Docker Compose - Multi-container applications - Portainer - Container management UI

Container Registries: - Docker Hub - Public container registry - GitHub Container Registry - GitHub's registry - AWS ECR - Amazon container registry

Cloud Platforms#

Major Cloud Providers: - AWS - Amazon Web Services - Google Cloud - Google Cloud Platform - Microsoft Azure - Microsoft's cloud platform - DigitalOcean - Simple cloud hosting

Platform as a Service: - Heroku - Easy app deployment - Vercel - Frontend deployment platform - Netlify - JAMstack platform - Railway - Modern deployment platform

Infrastructure as Code#

Security Tools#

Secret Management#

Secret Stores: - HashiCorp Vault - Secrets management - AWS Secrets Manager - AWS secret storage - Azure Key Vault - Azure secret management - Google Secret Manager - Google Cloud secrets

Environment Management: - dotenv - Load environment variables - direnv - Environment variable management - envsubst - Environment variable substitution

Security Scanning#

  • Snyk - Vulnerability scanning
  • OWASP ZAP - Security testing proxy
  • Trivy - Container vulnerability scanner
  • SonarQube - Code quality and security

Collaboration Tools#

Communication#

Team Chat: - Slack - Team communication platform - Discord - Voice, video, and text chat - Microsoft Teams - Collaboration platform - Mattermost - Open-source Slack alternative

Video Conferencing: - Zoom - Video conferencing - Google Meet - Google's video calling - Microsoft Teams - Integrated collaboration - Jitsi Meet - Open-source video conferencing

Project Management#

  • Jira - Issue and project tracking
  • Trello - Kanban-style project management
  • Asana - Team project management
  • Linear - Modern issue tracking
  • GitHub Projects - Integrated project management

Performance & Optimization#

Performance Testing#

Load Testing: - Apache JMeter - Load testing tool - k6 - Modern load testing - Artillery - Load testing toolkit - Gatling - Performance testing framework

Performance Monitoring: - Lighthouse - Web performance auditing - WebPageTest - Website performance testing - GTmetrix - Website speed testing

Code Quality Tools#

Linting & Formatting: - ESLint - JavaScript linting - Prettier - Code formatting - TSLint - TypeScript linting (deprecated, use ESLint) - StandardJS - JavaScript style guide

Code Quality: - SonarQube - Code quality platform - CodeClimate - Automated code review - Codacy - Automated code quality

Browser Extensions#

Development Extensions#

Chrome Extensions: - JSON Viewer - Format JSON responses - Postman Interceptor - Capture browser requests - React Developer Tools - React debugging - Vue.js devtools - Vue.js debugging

Firefox Extensions: - JSONView - JSON formatting - Web Developer - Web development tools - Multi-Account Containers - Separate browsing contexts

For Beginners#

  1. n8n Cloud - Start with managed hosting
  2. VS Code - Code editor with extensions
  3. Chrome DevTools - Browser debugging
  4. Postman - API testing
  5. GitHub - Version control

For Intermediate Users#

  1. n8n Self-hosted - More control and customization
  2. Docker Desktop - Containerization
  3. Insomnia - Advanced API testing
  4. Grafana - Monitoring dashboards
  5. Sentry - Error tracking

For Advanced Users#

  1. Custom n8n Nodes - Build specialized integrations
  2. Kubernetes - Container orchestration
  3. Terraform - Infrastructure as code
  4. HashiCorp Vault - Secret management
  5. Custom monitoring - Tailored observability

Installation Guides#

Package Managers#

macOS: 

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# Homebrew
brew install node
brew install docker
brew install git

Windows: 

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# Chocolatey
choco install nodejs
choco install docker-desktop
choco install git

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian): 

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# APT
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nodejs npm docker.io git

Node.js & npm#

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# Install Node.js (via Node Version Manager)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.0/install.sh | bash
nvm install node
nvm use node

# Install n8n globally
npm install -g n8n

Docker Setup#

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# Install Docker (Ubuntu)
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

# Run n8n with Docker
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  n8nio/n8n

Having the right tools makes all the difference in your n8n journey. Start with the basics and gradually add more sophisticated tools as your needs grow! 🛠️