Automated workflow backup with intelligent change detection using GitHub

Advanced n8n Workflow Sync with GitHub A robust workflow to back up and synchronize your n8n workflows to a GitHub repository, with intelligent change detection and support for file renames. 🎯 Who's it for? This workflow is for n8n administrators, developers, and power users who want a reliable, automated way to: - Keep a version-controlled history of their workflows. - Collaborate on workflows using GitHub's infrastructure. - Prevent data loss and have a disaster recovery plan for their n8n instance. ✨ Key Features (What it does) - Intelligent Sync: Backs up all your n8n workflows to a designated GitHub repository. - Human-Readable Filenames: Saves workflows with filenames based on their actual names in n8n (e.g., My Awesome Workflow.json). - Reliable Matching: Uses the unique n8n workflow ID to reliably track files, even if their names change. - Rename Detection: If you rename a workflow in n8n, it intelligently deletes the old file and creates a new one in a single logical operation. - Efficient Commits: Commits changes to GitHub only when there are actual modifications to a workflow's logic or structure. It performs a deep comparison, ignoring metadata changes. - Clear Commit History: Generates clean, informative commit messages: - create: workflowName - update: workflowName - rename: oldName - newName ⚙️ How It Works (Simple Steps) 1. Get n8n Workflows: The workflow starts by fetching all your current workflows from n8n. 2. Get GitHub Files: At the same time, it lists all existing workflow files from your GitHub repository. 3. Compare & Decide: It then compares each n8n workflow with its GitHub counterpart. It checks if anything changed, if it was renamed, or if it's new. 4. Take Action: - If a workflow is new, it's created on GitHub. - If a workflow is updated, the file content is changed on GitHub. - If a workflow was renamed, the old file is deleted, and a new one is created. - If nothing changed, the workflow is skipped. 5. Send Report: Finally, it can send a summary report to Telegram about what happened. 🚀 How to Set Up 1. Credentials: - GitHub: Go to Credentials > New and add your GitHub credentials. You'll need a token with repo permissions. - n8n API: In the same Credentials section, create n8n API credentials. You'll need your n8n instance's Base URL and an API key (you can create one in your n8n user settings). - Telegram (Optional): If you want notifications, add your Telegram Bot credentials. 2. Configure the Workflow: - Open the Configuration node (the green one at the start). - Fill in the following values: - repo.owner: Your GitHub username or organization name. - repo.name: The name of the repository for backups. - repo.path: The folder inside the repository to store workflows (e.g., workflows/). - report.tg.chatID (Optional): Your Telegram chat ID for notifications. Set to 0 to disable. - report.verbose: Set to true to receive a report even if there were no changes. 3. Connect Credentials: - Select your newly created credentials in the following nodes: - Get all workflows: Select your n8n API credentials. - All GitHub nodes (e.g., List files, Create new file): Select your GitHub credentials. - Send a message (Telegram): Select your Telegram credentials. 4. Set the Schedule: - In the Schedule Trigger node, configure how often you want the backup to run (e.g., every hour, once a day). 5. Activate the Workflow: - Save the workflow and toggle it to "Active". 🔧 How to Customize - Change Report Destination: The final part of the workflow sends a report to Telegram. You can easily replace the Send a message node with a node for Slack, Discord, or email to change where notifications go. The message is pre-formatted in the Render summary node. 💡 What's Next? (Future Updates) This workflow is actively maintained! Here's a sneak peek at what's planned for future versions: - Automatic Archive Handling: The next major update will introduce logic to automatically detect when a workflow is archived in n8n and mo