Automate n8n Updates with Version Checking and Portainer Webhook
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Dominic Spatz
Description
🔄 Purpose of the Workflow:
The Update-N8N workflow is designed to automatically trigger a (Portainer) webhook to update an N8N container, but only if a new version of N8N is available.
⚙️ Detailed Workflow Steps:
🕒 Scheduled Trigger
The workflow runs every 16 hours at minute 8 using a schedule trigger node.
🌐 Fetch Latest N8N Version
It sends an HTTP GET request to https://registry.npmjs.org/n8n/latest to retrieve the latest published N8N version from the npm registry.
📈 Get Currently Running Local Version
Another HTTP GET request is sent to https://127.0.0.1/metrics (likely the Prometheus metrics endpoint of the local N8N instance) to extract the currently installed N8N version.
🧠 Version Comparison
The workflow compares the local version (parsed from metrics) with the latest available version.
📬 Trigger Portainer Webhook
If the versions do not match (i.e., an update is available), a POST request is sent to a webhook URL, which might be a Portainer webhook that redeploys or updates the N8N container/stack.
✅ Key Benefits:
No manual checks or updates needed.
Triggers only when a new version is available.
Integrates seamlessly with Portainer via webhook.
Secure configuration, e.g., disallowing unauthorized TLS certs for external requests.
This workflow was created by Dominic Spatz and shared publicly on the n8n community template library. n8nFind indexes it for discovery — the workflow remains the property of its original creator.