Community nodes: Unable to install, upgrade or remove using UI

[kitobelix]

Bug Description

Hello team & readers.
I'm having this issue since a few weeks ago (and a few versions back). As the title says, i'm unable to install, upgrade or even remove community nodes (packages) using webui. Given that i'm using a self-hosted version, I can however do that operations using the console or a node inside a workflow to that purpose.

I've tried using the instance as root (which isn't recommended at all) but using it in such way gave me a few bits of freedom to run code with custom packages so I kept it that way. This discards a problem with permissions I guess.

What I see is:

Error installing new package
Error loading package "n8n-nodes-searxng" :Failed to save installed package Cause: async function setType(requestOptions) { const operation = this.getNodeParameter('operation'); const me...... } could not be cloned.

To Reproduce

1. Install with docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest image. Enable community nodes using env vars.
2. Login as Admin
3. Head up to settings > Community nodes
4. Input any valid community node package name. If it fails then continue. If not, call me dumb.
5. Try installing the community node using the container's shell.
6. Try uninstalling or upgrading the package from webui. It should fail.

Expected behavior

1. Install with docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest image. Enable community nodes using env vars.
2. Login as Admin
3. Head up to settings > Community nodes
4. Input any valid community node package name. If valid it should install and be manageable from webui.

Operating System

Ubuntu server 22 LTS (Docker docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest)

n8n Version

1.81.4

Node.js Version

v20.18.3

Database

PostgreSQL

Execution mode

main (default)

[Joffcom]

Hey @kitobelix,

We have created an internal ticket to look into this which we will be tracking as "GHC-1131"

[netroy]

So far I'm not able to reproduce this locally, or on any of the last few docker releases.

async function setType(requestOptions)

This bit is coming from the WhatsApp node, which should have nothing to do with community nodes.

Do you have any other community nodes installed? perhaps there is a copy of n8n-nodes-base somehow conflicting with the internals of n8n 🤔

If you have a volume mounted on /home/node/.n8n, can you please share the contents of /home/node/.n8n/nodes/package.json ?

[kitobelix]

Yes I do have other community nodes installed. Hey, thanks for reaching back.

{
  "name": "nodes",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "@devlikeapro/n8n-nodes-waha": "^2025.2.9",
    "@splainez/n8n-nodes-phonenumber-parser": "^1.0.3",
    "n8n-nodes-aws-sdk-v3": "^3.0.3",
    "n8n-nodes-browserless": "^1.1.3",
    "n8n-nodes-document-generator": "^1.0.9",
    "n8n-nodes-elevenlabs": "^0.0.6",
    "n8n-nodes-evolution-api": "^1.0.3",
    "n8n-nodes-randomizer": "^0.1.0",
    "n8n-nodes-searxng": "^0.2.6",
    "n8n-nodes-text-manipulation": "^1.4.0",
    "n8n-nodes-webpage-content-extractor": "^0.1.3",
    "n8n-nodes-youtube-transcription": "^1.0.1"
  }
}

Please, let me know if you need anything else.

Edit2: You gave me a nice clue about what could be happening, therefore I will try uninstalling some nodes to see which one could be the conflicting one.

Edit3: Uninstalled everything except n8n-nodes-browserless and n8n-nodes-elevenlabs (they are in use). Even if the packages appear as uninstalled at npm level, they still appear in the UI as missing and cannot be removed.

[netroy]

I've pushed a potential fix in #13832, and created a custom docker image ghcr.io/n8n-io/n8n:fix-community-nodes. If you can test this image and confirm that this fixes the issue, we can get the PR merged 🙏🏽

[kitobelix]

I think the phrase for this kind of success is "like a charm", right?

It worked.

[kitobelix]

I've went back to the previous version to await for the PR and suddenly I'm having out of memory errors in some AI agents... related to this maybe?

[netroy]

what version were you on before?

[kitobelix]

v1.81.4