# n8n

> Install n8n on Fortly in one step: the owner account, where workflows and credentials are stored, the encryption key, and running scheduled workflows.

Source: https://docs.fortly.com/apps/n8n

[n8n](https://n8n.io) is a workflow automation tool. You build workflows in its editor by connecting triggers (a webhook, a form, a timer) to steps that call other services.

## How it runs

n8n runs on Fortly's Workers runtime (workerd), with no Node.js process: its engine and editor, a sandbox for the Code node, and the storage it needs all run inside one workerd process for the project. It starts in a few seconds, so the first request after a quiet spell waits about three seconds, not the half minute a Node.js n8n takes.

## First visit

Open the project's address. n8n asks you to create its owner account the first time anyone opens it, so do this straight after installing. Until you do, whoever opens the address first gets to create that account.

## Where it keeps its data

n8n keeps its workflows, saved credentials and execution history in its own SQLite database and object store, as files in the project's data directory on its node. Restarts and redeploys keep them.

Each time n8n starts, Fortly saves a compressed copy of that directory to the project's own storage, as `_fortly/n8n-data.tar.gz`. If the project ever starts with no data, on a new node or a rebuilt disk, n8n is restored from that copy first. Changes made since the last start are not in it, and a copy larger than 64 MB is not saved, so delete old executions you do not need.

## Its encryption key

The install generates a secret named `N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY`, unique to this project, which n8n uses to encrypt the credentials you save in it. You can see its name, never its value, under the project's **Deployments › Environment**.

> **Warning:**
>
> Do not change or remove `N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY`. n8n cannot read credentials saved under a different key, so every saved credential would have to be entered again.

## Workflows that run on a timer

n8n's Schedule trigger fires on time while n8n is running. On the Free plan, like any project with its own process, it is stopped after a period without requests and started again by the next one (see [idle projects](https://docs.fortly.com/concepts#idle-projects-and-waking-up)), and its timers do not fire while it is stopped.

For a workflow that must run on time, start it with an n8n **Webhook** trigger instead, and add a Fortly [schedule](https://docs.fortly.com/deploy/schedules) that requests the webhook's path. A schedule's request wakes the project, so the workflow runs whether or not anyone has visited.

## After installing

n8n is an ordinary project once it is installed. See [after installing](https://docs.fortly.com/apps#after-installing) for its domains, logs and database, and [installing an app](https://docs.fortly.com/apps#install-an-app) for the console and API steps every app shares.

For a summary of what the n8n app includes and how it compares with the other one-click apps, see [n8n on fortly.com](https://fortly.com/apps/n8n).