n8n Stack Deployment

This repository provides a ready-to-use deployment of n8n with Caddy as a reverse proxy and automatic HTTPS certificates.
Deployment is automated through GitHub Actions and executed on a remote server.

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Overview

• n8n workflow automation platform
• Caddy reverse proxy with automatic TLS via Let’s Encrypt
• GitHub Actions pipeline for zero-downtime deployment
• Secure environment with encryption key and basic auth support

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Architecture

Services (docker-compose.yml)

• n8n

  • Image: n8nio/n8n:latest
  • Exposed on port 5678
  • Persistent volume: n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
  • Configured with environment variables from .env

• caddy

  • Image: caddy:latest
  • Exposed on ports 80 and 443
  • Uses Caddyfile for reverse proxy configuration
  • Handles HTTPS certificates automatically
  • Persistent volumes: caddy_data, caddy_config

Volumes

• n8n_data
• caddy_data
• caddy_config

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Reverse Proxy (Caddyfile)

Caddy is configured to:

• Serve ${DOMAIN} on HTTPS
• Automatically issue and renew TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt
• Proxy traffic securely to the n8n container at port 5678

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Environment Variables (.env)

The following variables are required:

DOMAIN=yourdomain.com
LE_EMAIL=you@example.com
N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=your_encryption_key
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=strongpassword

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Setup

Where to work

You can use this repository directly or fork it to your own GitHub account. If you plan to customize the stack, forking is recommended so you can push to your own main branch.

Configure GitHub Secrets

Add the following repository Secrets in GitHub:

1. Open your repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret.
2. Create these secrets:

Required for SSH:

• SSH_HOST — server IP or hostname
• SSH_USER — SSH username (with permissions to run Docker)
• SSH_PASSWORD — SSH password for that user

Required for n8n/Caddy:

• DOMAIN — your domain (e.g. automation.example.com)
• LE_EMAIL — email for Let’s Encrypt
• N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY — strong random string (used to encrypt credentials in n8n)
• N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE — true or false
• N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER — login for Basic Auth
• N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD — password for Basic Auth

Names must match exactly as above — the workflow reads them via ${{ secrets.NAME }}.

One-time server prerequisites

• A Linux host reachable via SSH (ports 22, 80, 443 open).
• User from SSH_USER can run Docker (either in docker group or via sudo).
• DNS A/AAAA record for DOMAIN points to your server’s IP.

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Deployment

How to trigger the deploy

The workflow runs on push to main. To deploy:

1. Commit your changes.
2. Push to main:

   git push origin main

3. Go to Actions → Deploy n8n to watch the run.

Optional: manual trigger

If you want a manual “Run workflow” button, add this to the top of .github/workflows/deploy.yml:

on:
  push:
    branches: ["main"]
  workflow_dispatch: {}

Then open Actions → Deploy n8n → Run workflow.

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Manual Server Preparation

Ensure the server has:

• Docker installed
• Docker Compose plugin (docker compose) or legacy binary (docker-compose)
• Open ports 80 and 443

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Usage

After deployment:

• Access n8n via: https://yourdomain.com/
• Login with Basic Auth credentials (N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER / N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD)
• All workflows and credentials are stored in n8n_data volume

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Updating

To redeploy:

git push origin main

This will trigger the GitHub Actions workflow and update the remote stack.

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License

This repository is provided as-is for deploying n8n with Docker and Caddy.