Table of Contents

What you’ll end up with

• Git installed and working
• Node.js LTS (which includes npm & npx)
• n8n running locally at **http://localhost:5678/**
• Optional: Docker Compose setup with Postgres for persistence
• Optional: run as a background service (systemd/pm2/NSSM)

0) Open a terminal

• Windows: PowerShell (recommended) or Windows Terminal
• macOS: Terminal or iTerm
• Linux: Your favorite terminal

Create (or jump into) your projects folder:

# macOS / Linux
mkdir -p ~/Developer && cd ~/Developer

# Windows PowerShell
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\\Developer" | Out-Null
Set-Location "$HOME\\Developer"

1) Quick prerequisite checks

macOS / Linux