Where does console.log output go in an n8n Docker container on AWS?

When running code in an n8n Code node, the output from console.log isn’t automatically sent to the container’s stdout. By default, console.log output is meant for the browser’s developer tools in the n8n Editor UI. This means that if you run your workflow on a headless server (like on AWS with Docker), you won’t see those messages by default in your Docker logs.

If you want the Code node’s console.log output to appear in your container’s logs so you can debug it from the terminal (for example via docker logs), you need to enable that explicitly by setting the CODE_ENABLE_STDOUT environment variable to true.

Here’s how you can modify your docker run command to do that:

BASHCopied
sudo docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 \
  -e N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=FALSE \
  -e NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=node-fetch \
  -e CODE_ENABLE_STDOUT=true \
  -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
  docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

After restarting your container with this additional environment variable, the output of your console.log calls (from your JavaScript Code node) should be sent to the container’s stdout. You can then view it by running:

BASHCopied
sudo docker logs n8n

This change allows you to debug your AI Agent Code Tools directly from the container’s log output.