KV Storage is n8n community node that implements rudimentary key-value storage, stored in memory. It is created for use-cases, when usage of Database or Redis is not desired, and StaticData or Code are not enough.

KV Storage is putting values into buckets, that we called Scopes.

This node should be used with EXECUTION_PROCESS=main.

You could also run it in own mode, but in then actually only EXECUTION scope will be working, because n8n is starting each execution in separate node process and these processes neither share any data nor have IPC setup.

If you are using own process intentionally, you may consider using Redis instead of KV Storage node.

Same applies for multi-node setups: you may consider using Redis, since KV Storage does not have any backend and stores all the data in memory of one single n8n node.

Scopes

Execution

Values, put into this scope will be readable only by the nodes within the same Workflow Execution.

Multiple Execution scopes may coexist: We differentiate between scopes of different executions by using {{ $execution.id }}

This is recommended for short-living values, like loop counters, calculating indices, or strings that need to be combined together.

Please consider keeping Expires / TTL parameter for such values, because otherwise these entries will never be deleted and can increase memory consumption of your n8n process

Workflow

Workflow-scoped values will be accessible to every node within the same workflow (considering WorkflowID was not changed) in every Workflow Execution.

Multiple Workflow scopes may coexist: We differentiate between scopes of different executions by using workflowId

You may use this scope to store some temporary state, that needs to be shared between different executions.

Expires / TTL parameter is enabled by default, but you may turn it off if you would not like that your values are automatically deleted when expired.

Instance

This is global scope scope: values put here will be shared between all n8n workflows running on single n8n node.

There is only one Instance scope: we are not using any specifier.

Cluster

This scope is not implemented.

Cluster-scoped values would be accessible to every node in n8n cluster.

Node Actions

setValue

Sets value based on key, Scope (Execution/Workflow/Instance) and specifier/ID of the Scope.

Expires / TTL parameter may be used if values need to be automatically deleted after some time.

Sends added or updated events that can be listened to using KV Storage Trigger node.

incrementValue

Increments value based on key, Scope (Execution/Workflow/Instance) and specifier/ID of the Scope. If value was not set in the past, it is initialized with 1.

Expires / TTL parameter may be used if values need to be automatically deleted after some time.

Sends added or updated events that can be listened to using KV Storage Trigger node.

getValue

Returns value, based on Scope, Scope specifier and key.

listAllScopeKeys

Returns all keys within one Scope.

listAllKeyValues

Returns all entries (key/value pairs) within one Scope.

Debug: listAllKeyValuesInAllScopes

Returns all entries (key/value pairs) within all Scope.

TTL and Value deletion

If Expires / TTL parameters were provided when value was set, these values will be automatically deleted after expiration.

Deletion job is schedules to run every 1000ms.

Deletion job sends deleted events for every key that is deleted. You can listen to this event using KV Storage Trigger node.

Trigger Node

With KV Storage Trigger node you can listen to added edited and deleted events in respective scopes.

If you select Workspace scope, you must provide workflowId (or comma-separated list of multiple workflowIds) that will be observed.

Contributions and development

To test this node on local npm installation, you can use make run command.

You can also use make prepublish target to auto-format and lint-fix your code before submitting your changes.

Please refer to Makefile.

License

This project is licensed under MIT License.