n8n Binary File Handler & Benchmark

Overview

This n8n workflow provides a foundational template for handling binary data. It sets up a webhook endpoint that accepts a file, writes it to the local filesystem of your n8n instance, reads it back, and then returns the file's contents in the response. It's a straightforward yet powerful demonstration of n8n's ability to manage file I/O, serving as a crucial component for more complex agents that need to process documents, images, or other file types.

Key Features & Benefits

• Robust File Handling: Demonstrates the core capability of receiving and processing binary data payloads.
• Filesystem I/O: Shows how to read and write files directly on the server running n8n, enabling stateful or temporary storage.
• Performance Benchmark: Use this workflow to test the file handling latency and throughput of your specific n8n setup.
• Foundation for Agents: Acts as a starter template for building sophisticated agents that perform tasks like image resizing, PDF text extraction, or data validation on uploaded files.

• An n8n instance (self-hosted is required for filesystem access).
• The Read/Write File node requires access to the local filesystem of the machine n8n is running on. This functionality is not available on standard n8n Cloud plans.
• A tool to send POST requests with binary data, such as cURL or Postman.

1. Import the workflow JSON into your self-hosted n8n instance.
2. Open the 'Webhook' node and copy the Test URL.
3. Use a command-line tool like cURL to send a file to the endpoint. Example: curl -X POST --data-binary "@/path/to/your/file.jpg" YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL.
4. Execute the workflow to see the file being written, read, and then returned in the 'Respond to Webhook' node.
5. Activate the workflow to use the permanent Production URL for your applications.
6. Important: Ensure the user running the n8n process has the necessary read/write permissions for its working directory.