n8n-nodes-filemanager

A community node for n8n to manage files and folders on disk. Supports generic operations: create, copy, move, remove, rename, compress, and extract files and directories.

Installation

Install via npm:

npm install n8n-nodes-filemanager

Restart your n8n instance to load the new node.

Requirements

• n8n >= 1.82.0
• Node.js >= 20.15

File Manager Node

The File Manager node provides the following operations:

• create — Creates a file or directory. If the path has an extension, a file is created; otherwise, a directory is created.
• copy — Copies a file or directory to a new location.
• compress — Archives a file or directory into a .tar.gz file.
• move — Moves (renames) a file or directory to a new location.
• remove — Deletes a file or directory. Supports recursive deletion of directories.
• extract — Extracts a .tar.gz archive into a directory.
• rename — Alias for move; renames a file or directory.
• read — Reads the contents of a file.
• write — Writes data to a file, replacing the existing contents.
• append — Appends data to the end of a file.
• change permissions — Updates the mode bits of a file or directory.
• list — Lists the entries of a directory.
• exists — Checks if a path exists.
• metadata — Returns metadata for a file or directory.
• search — Recursively searches for paths matching a pattern.

Node Parameters

Parameter	Description
Operation	The action to perform: append, change permissions, compress, copy, create, exists, extract, list, metadata, move, read, remove, rename, search, write.
Source Path	Path to the file or directory to operate on.
Destination Path	Target path for copy, move, rename, compress, and extract operations.
Recursive	Whether to delete directories recursively for remove operation (default: true).
Target Path	Path for read, write, append, change permissions, list, exists, and metadata operations.
Data	Content to use for write and append operations.
Encoding	File encoding for read, write, and append (default: utf8).
Mode	Numeric mode for change permissions (default: 0o644).
Base Path	Starting directory for the search operation.
Pattern	Regular expression to match paths for the search operation.

Example Usage

1. Add the File Manager node to your workflow.
2. Set Operation to copy.
3. Enter /tmp/example.txt as Source Path.
4. Enter /tmp/example-copy.txt as Destination Path.
5. Execute the workflow to copy the file.
6. To change permissions, set Operation to change permissions, provide a Target Path, and specify the numeric Mode (for example, 0o600).
7. To search for .txt files recursively, set Operation to search, specify the Base Path, and use a regex Pattern like \\.txt$.

Using with AI

The File Manager node is marked usableAsTool: true, so AI agents can call its operations directly. Typical uses include creating or deleting files and folders, copying or moving items, and renaming paths. Always provide explicit path instructions and desired actions to keep operations safe.

Prompt Examples

• "Create a directory `/tmp/logs` if it does not exist."
• "Copy `report.csv` to the `archive` folder."
• "Delete the temporary folder after processing."

Version History

• v0.2.1 — Patch release: version bump.
• v0.2.0 — Breaking change: generic operations; auto-detect file or directory. Removed separate file/folder parameters.
• v0.1.0 — Initial release with separate file and folder operations.

Development

Before committing changes, run npm test to build the project and execute unit and lint tests. The environment has no network access after setup, so avoid running commands like npm install. When adding option arrays with five or more entries, keep them alphabetized by name.

See AGENTS.md for the full development guidelines.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open issues and submit pull requests on GitHub.

License

MIT © horoko