Restore your workflows from GitHub

Restore your workflows from GitHub with this automated n8n workflow. Easily retrieve and restore all your instance workflows from GitHub backups by simply updating your repository details. This streamlined process saves time and ensures your workflows are always up-to-date and accessible.

7/8/2025
9 nodes
Medium
2rwifluvca0bnmgxmanualmediumsticky notesplitoutgithubextractfromfilen8napiintegrationfilesstorage
Categories:
Manual TriggeredTechnical Infrastructure & DevOpsMedium Workflow
Integrations:
Sticky NoteSplitOutGitHubExtractFromFileN8n

Target Audience

  • Developers looking to automate the restoration of workflows from GitHub backups.
    - n8n Users who need to manage their workflows efficiently and ensure they have backups available.
    - Project Managers who want to streamline the process of restoring workflows in case of data loss or corruption.
    - Teams that collaborate on projects and require a reliable method to recover workflow settings quickly.

    • Problem Solved

    This workflow addresses the challenge of restoring n8n workflows from GitHub backups, ensuring that users can recover their automation configurations easily and avoid data loss. By automating the retrieval and restoration process, it saves time and reduces the risk of manual errors during recovery.

    Workflow Steps

  • Trigger the Workflow: The process starts with a manual trigger when the user clicks ‘Test workflow’.
    - Set Global Variables: The Globals node defines essential parameters such as repo.owner, repo.name, and repo.path, which specify the GitHub repository details.
    - Get Files: The workflow retrieves all files from the specified path in the GitHub repository using the Get all files in given path node.
    - Split File Paths: The Split the result node separates the file paths for further processing.
    - Fetch File Content: For each file, the Get file content from GitHub node retrieves the content using the GitHub API.
    - Convert to JSON: The Convert files to JSON node transforms the file content into JSON format for easy manipulation.
    - Restore Workflows: Finally, the Restore n8n Workflows node takes the JSON data and creates new workflows in the n8n instance, effectively restoring the previous configurations.

    • Customization Guide

  • Update Global Variables: Users can modify the values in the Globals node to set their own GitHub username, repository name, and path to the workflows.
    - Change Node Parameters: Adjust the parameters in the Get file content from GitHub node to specify different GitHub repositories or file types if necessary.
    - Modify Workflow Logic: Users can add additional nodes or modify existing ones to handle specific workflow restoration needs, such as logging or error handling.
    - Integrate with Other Services: The workflow can be extended to integrate with other services or APIs for enhanced functionality, like notifications on successful restoration.