n8n-code-python

Python Code Node (Beta)

Expert guidance for writing Python code in n8n Code nodes.

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JavaScript First

Use JavaScript for 95% of use cases. Only use Python when:

• You need specific Python standard library functions (e.g. statistics)
• You're significantly more comfortable with Python syntax
• You're doing data transformations better suited to Python

JavaScript has $helpers.httpRequest(), Luxon DateTime, and better n8n docs.

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Quick Start

# Basic template for Python Code nodes
items = _input.all()

processed = []
for item in items:
    processed.append({
        "json": {
            **item["json"],
            "processed": True,
            "timestamp": datetime.now().isoformat()
        }
    })

return processed

Essential Rules

1. Consider JavaScript first
2. Access data: _input.all(), _input.first(), _input.item
3. CRITICAL: Return [{"json": {...}}] format
4. CRITICAL: Webhook data is under _json["body"]
5. CRITICAL LIMITATION: No external libraries — no requests, pandas, numpy

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CRITICAL: No External Libraries

# ❌ NOT AVAILABLE
import requests   # ModuleNotFoundError
import pandas     # ModuleNotFoundError

# ✅ AVAILABLE (standard library only)
import json
import datetime
import re
import base64
import hashlib
import urllib.parse
import math
import random
import statistics

Workarounds:

• Need HTTP requests? → Use HTTP Request node before Code node (or switch to JavaScript)
• Need pandas? → Use statistics module for basic stats, or switch to JavaScript

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Data Access

# All items
all_items = _input.all()

# First item
first_item = _input.first()
data = first_item["json"]

# Each item mode
current_item = _input.item

# Other nodes
webhook_data = _node["Webhook"]["json"]
http_data = _node["HTTP Request"]["json"]

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CRITICAL: Webhook Data

# ❌ WRONG
name = _json["name"]        # KeyError!

# ✅ CORRECT
name = _json["body"]["name"]

# ✅ SAFER
name = _json.get("body", {}).get("name", "Unknown")