Deploy and Host n8n with Workers on Railway

Advanced n8n on Railway in queue mode: Primary (editor + webhooks) + Worker + Redis + Postgres. This is the scalable stack on c17.io/stacks/n8n-workers.

For personal / light use, prefer the simpler two-service template: 9o4t/n8n → c17.io/stacks/n8n-automation.

No LLM or SaaS API keys are required to boot. Railway injects PORT. The template generates N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY (shared by Primary and Worker) and wires WEBHOOK_URL to the public domain.

Cost note: four services (Primary, Worker, Redis, Postgres) cost more than the simple n8n + Postgres stack. Use this when concurrent workflows or heavy jobs would slow the editor.

About Hosting n8n with Workers

Queue mode separates the UI from execution:

Browser / Webhooks → Primary (n8n start)
                         ↓
                      Redis (Bull queue)
                         ↓
                      Worker (n8n worker)
                         ↓
                      Postgres

Service	Source	Public	Notes
`Primary`	Docker image `n8nio/n8n`	Yes	`n8n start`. Health `GET /healthz`. Volume `/home/node/.n8n`.
`Worker`	Docker image `n8nio/n8n`	No	`n8n worker`. Shares DB, Redis, and encryption key.
`Redis`	`redis:7-alpine` (or Railway Redis)	No	Bull queue broker.
`Postgres`	`postgres:16`	No	Workflows, credentials, execution history.

Both Primary and Worker need EXECUTIONS_MODE=queue and the same N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY. Losing the key makes stored credentials unreadable.

The first account you create in the editor is the owner. There is no default username or password.

Common Use Cases

High-volume webhooks without blocking the editor
Concurrent / heavy workflows offloaded to workers
Scale throughput by adding Worker replicas
Production-style automation where UI and execution stay separate

Dependencies for n8n with workers Hosting

Required (wired or generated — you do not type these)

Variable	Service	Source
`PORT`	Primary / Worker	`5678` (Railway may also inject)
`EXECUTIONS_MODE`	Primary / Worker	`queue`
`N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY`	Primary	Generated. Worker refs `${{Primary.N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY}}`
`WEBHOOK_URL`	Primary	`https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`
`N8N_EDITOR_BASE_URL`	Primary	`https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`
`DB_TYPE`	Primary / Worker	`postgresdb`
`DB_POSTGRESDB_*`	Primary / Worker	Refs to Postgres
`QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_*`	Primary / Worker	Refs to Redis
`QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_DUALSTACK`	Primary / Worker	`true` (Railway private DNS is IPv6)
`OFFLOAD_MANUAL_EXECUTIONS_TO_WORKERS`	Primary / Worker	`true`

Optional

Variable	Required	Why
`GENERIC_TIMEZONE`	No	Cron timezone, e.g. `America/New_York`. Default UTC.
Slack / OpenAI / Google keys	No	Added inside n8n credentials after deploy. BYO.

Volumes

Mount	Service	Why
`/home/node/.n8n`	Primary	Settings, binary data. Keep even with Postgres.
`/var/lib/postgresql/data`	Postgres	Database files
`/data`	Redis	AOF / RDB persistence

Worker is stateless by default (no volume).

Why Deploy n8n Workers on Railway?

The simple n8n + Postgres template is cheaper and enough for most personal graphs. This workers stack costs more because Redis and a Worker run continuously — worth it when the editor would otherwise stall under load. Trial credits cover the first deploy for most people. c17 never charges you — Railway usage is the referral / template kickback.

See TEMPLATE.md for the marketplace / composer shape.

Run locally

cp .env.example .env
# set POSTGRES_PASSWORD, REDIS_PASSWORD, N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY (openssl rand -hex 32)
docker compose up

Editor: http://localhost:5678 — create the first owner account. Worker logs should show it consuming the queue.

License

n8n is fair-code (Sustainable Use License). This repo is config and docs only.