How do I upgrade my n8n instance on Railway to the beta version?

Below is some clarification on how to update your n8n instance to the beta version:

1. n8n Cloud vs Self-Hosted on Railway:

   • For n8n Cloud instances, the recommended way to change versions is via the Cloud dashboard. Log in, navigate to Manage, then choose the n8n version dropdown where you can select “Latest Beta” (the beta release). This method is documented in our Cloud update guide.
   • For self-hosted instances (for example, if you’re running n8n on Railway), you’ll typically update the installed version using your package manager rather than running a CLI command like n8n upgrade --version beta.

2. Updating a Self-Hosted Instance (including Railway Deployments):
   n8n differentiates between the stable (“latest”) and beta (“next”) releases. For self-hosting, to update to the beta version, you would install the next release. For example, if you use npm you can run:

   BASHCopied
   npm install -g n8n@next

   Then restart your instance. If you’re using Railway, update your deployment configuration (for example, adjust your image or build command as needed) so that your container or service uses the beta version now installed.

3. Important Note:
   The command and JSON snippet you provided

   BASHCopied
   # Step to switch to beta version
   n8n upgrade --version beta

   JSONCopied
   {
     "version": "beta"
   }

   are not part of our documented update process. Instead, please follow one of the approaches above depending on whether you’re using n8n Cloud or self-hosting on Railway.

Choose the method that matches your deployment so you can safely try out the newest beta features.