Cockpit n8n integrationAutomate Cockpit with n8n.
Your Cockpit content can feed the rest of your tools without anyone opening the admin panel. The Cockpit n8n integration exposes 5 operations over 3 resources: collections, forms and singletons. Cockpit has no trigger node, so a workflow starts elsewhere and calls Cockpit when it needs to read or write.
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What does the Cockpit n8n integration actually give you?
The Cockpit n8n integration is one node that talks to the Cockpit API from inside a workflow. It groups 5 operations under 3 resources: collections (create, read, update entries), forms (store a submission) and singletons (read one). You choose the resource, choose the operation, point it at a collection or a singleton by name, and n8n signs the call with the credential you saved once in the Credentials menu.
Reading is where most people start. A Schedule Trigger fires every morning, collection.getAll pulls the entries of a products collection, and the rows land in Google Sheets for the sales team. Switch Return All on and n8n keeps asking the API for the next page until the collection is exhausted. Leave it off and Limit caps how many entries come back, which is what you want while you are still testing the workflow.
Writing back is the second half. Say an editor approves a draft in a review tool: the workflow picks up that approval, then collection.update changes the matching entry in Cockpit. The operation needs the Entry ID of the record, not its title, so the update usually follows a read that already carries the identifier. Nothing else in the entry moves unless you put it in Entry Data.
Forms cover the inbound side. A landing page posts to an n8n Webhook, which is a URL n8n publishes so an outside service can call your workflow. From there form.submit stores the answers in the Cockpit form of that name, and a confirmation goes out through Gmail in the same run. Everything stays on your Cockpit instance instead of a third-party form vendor.
Singletons are the small, quiet one. singleton.get reads a single block of content, the kind you use for a banner, a contact address or a feature flag, and a downstream node decides what to do with it. It reads only, so treat it as configuration a workflow consults rather than data it maintains.
Two things are worth knowing before you build. The Cockpit node has no trigger, so the schedule or the webhook always comes from another node. And anything outside these 5 catalog operations goes through the HTTP Request node, which calls any Cockpit API endpoint while reusing the same credential. If you want a second opinion on the platform before committing, the n8n review covers it, and the n8n training walks through building workflows like these.
How do you connect Cockpit to n8n?
- 01
Create the API token in Cockpit
You need a Cockpit account and a self-hosted instance of Cockpit running before anything else. Inside it, generate an API token following Cockpit's own Managing tokens documentation. That token is the only supported authentication method for this node, so there is no OAuth screen to click through and no second app to register. Keep the token somewhere safe, you will paste it into n8n in the next step.
- 02
Save the Cockpit credential in n8n
Open the Credentials menu in n8n and create a Cockpit credential, which is the stored login n8n reuses on every call. Two values go in. Cockpit URL is the URL you use to reach your own Cockpit instance. Access Token is the API token you just generated in Cockpit. Save it once and every Cockpit node in every workflow can select it from a dropdown.
- 03
Pick a resource and run the node once
Drop a Cockpit node in a workflow and choose the resource first: Collection, Form or Singleton. The operation list narrows to what that resource supports. For a collection, Collection Name or ID loads the collections from your instance, so you select the right one instead of typing it. Run the node on its own and check the output before you wire anything behind it.
What can the Cockpit node do?
The Cockpit node exposes 5 operations across 3 resources. For each one: the node as you configure it in n8n, the required fields, and our field notes.
| Resource | Create an Entry | Get | Get Many Entries | Update an Entry | Submit a Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Form | ✓ | ||||
| Singleton | ✓ |
Collection
3 operationsCreate a collection entry
collection.createWhat you see in n8n
Notes & use cases
Adds a new entry to a Cockpit collection and hands the stored record to the next node, so a workflow can keep working with what it just created.
Key parameters
- Collection Name or ID: the collection the entry lands in. Pick it from the list n8n loads from your instance, or supply an ID with an expression.
- JSON Data Fields: decides how you fill the entry, through the key-value pair interface or as raw JSON.
- Entry Data: the content itself, typed field by field or pasted whole as JSON.
Get many collection entries
collection.getAllWhat you see in n8n
Notes & use cases
Reads entries out of a collection and returns them as separate items, one per entry, ready to loop over or send somewhere else.
Key parameters
- Return All: on, n8n pages through the API until every entry is back; off, Limit sets the ceiling.
- Filter Query: a query in Mongolite format, such as
{"name": "Jim"}, so the filtering happens in Cockpit rather than in a later node. - Fields: a comma-separated list like
_id,namewhen you only need two columns out of a heavy entry. - Populate: resolves items linked from other collections instead of leaving raw references.
Update a collection entry
collection.updateWhat you see in n8n
Notes & use cases
Changes one existing entry in place. The entry keeps its identity, only the fields you send are rewritten.
Key parameters
- Entry ID: the identifier of the record to modify, usually carried over as an expression from a previous read step rather than typed by hand. A title will not do, Cockpit matches on the ID.
- Collection Name or ID: the collection that holds the entry, selected from the list or given as an ID.
- Entry Data and JSON Data Fields: the new values, and whether you enter them as key-value pairs or as JSON.
Form
1 operationSubmit a form
form.submitWhat you see in n8n
Notes & use cases
Stores a form submission in Cockpit, exactly as if the visitor had filled the form on your own site. The submission is kept under the form you name.
Key parameters
- Form: the name of the form the data belongs to. It is typed, not picked from a list, so the spelling has to match the form in Cockpit.
- Form Data: the answers themselves, mapped field by field or sent as one JSON object.
- JSON Data Fields: switches between those two ways of filling the data.
Singleton
1 operationGet a singleton
singleton.getWhat you see in n8n
Notes & use cases
Fetches one singleton, the standalone piece of content Cockpit keeps outside any collection, and returns it as a single item.
Key parameters
- Singleton Name or ID: which singleton to read, chosen from the list n8n pulls from your instance or passed as an ID through an expression.
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