How to run Node-Red on Docker with multiple environments with git

Question

I'm running Node-Red on my server, and I want it to follow the deployment process like we are doing with code- working locally, making changes, commit and push.

Here is the list of the requirements:

• Run Node-Red on Docker.
• Track and backup tasks, configurations, all with Git
• Ability to clone the repository and start Node-Red, without any configurations.
• Make the changes on my local machine, and deploy them by pushing to Git.

To be more accurate, I need to add the flows.json, settings.json and package.json to the git.

And one of the main issues is when I'm adding a new package to the package.json, the NodeRed will not install it automaticlly.

Answer 1

The solution (workaround) I found is based on adding npm install to the docker entrypoint, how does it work?

Mount to local folder

First, we want to run the Node-Red, and mount its /data volume to our local folder:

docker run -p 1880:1880 -v $(pwd)/node-red:/data nodered/node-red

Now, if you're running from your local git repo, you will get a folder called node-red and it will include all the Node-Red workspace.

Add Node-Red data to Git

To track only the Node-Red configuration files, you need to add the next entries to your .gitignore file:

node-red/*
!node-red/package.json
!node-red/package-lock.json
!node-red/flows.json
!node-red/flows_cred.json
!node-red/settings.js

All the other files are auto-generated.

Install the missing packages on startup

Now, the hard part. If you added a new library in your local environment, and you pushed the changes, you want Node-Red to install the new library before it starts.

We will take the original Node-Red start command from Node-Red Dockerfile:

npm --no-update-notifier --no-fund start --cache /data/.npm -- --userDir /data

And before this command, we will take the npm install command suggested for a custom docker:

npm install --unsafe-perm --no-update-notifier --no-fund --only=production

Here is my final docker-compose.yml file, which includes a docker run commandline to run only this image in the development environment:

node-red:
  # port 1880
  # Dev: docker run -p 1880:1880 -v $(pwd)/node-red:/data --entrypoint="" --env-file .env nodered/node-red /bin/sh -c "npm install --prefix /data --unsafe-perm --no-update-notifier --no-fund --only=production && npm --no-update-notifier --no-fund start --cache /data/.npm -- --userDir /data"
  image: nodered/node-red
  env_file:
    - shared.env
  network_mode: host
  entrypoint: >
    sh -c "
    npm install --prefix /data --unsafe-perm --no-update-notifier --no-fund --only=production
    && npm --no-update-notifier --no-fund start --cache /data/.npm -- --userDir /data"
  environment:
    NODE_RED_CREDENTIAL_SECRET: ${NODE_RED_CREDENTIAL_SECRET}
  volumes:
    - ./node-red:/data
  restart: unless-stopped

Answer 2

You may consider using the new (preview) feature called Projects.

With this feature, the Git source control is integrated into your Node-Red instance, and shows you the changes, the missing packages, the commit history, and all.

To enable this feature, you need to turn it on in the settings.json file.

Since it is a solution that is officially supported by Node-Red (in preview), it's highly recommended. AFAIK, it will not solve your problem to auto-install newly added packages, but on the other hand, it giving you a better control about what is changed, what needs to be installed, and what is missing, in complex systems.