Resources · n8n integration

Rundeck n8n integrationAutomate Rundeck with n8n.

Your runbooks already live in Rundeck, so stop starting them by hand. The Rundeck n8n integration gives you a node with 2 operations on the Job resource: execute a job, or read the metadata of one. There is no Rundeck trigger, so the workflow starts elsewhere and Rundeck does the work.

Try the Rundeck integration on n8nSee the 2 operations

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Why automate

What does the Rundeck n8n integration actually do?

Rundeck holds the jobs your team runs on servers. n8n holds everything that happens around those jobs: the alert that should start one, the approval that gates it, the message that closes the loop. The Rundeck node in n8n bridges the two with 2 operations, both on the Job resource, both addressed by a job ID.

Start with the obvious one. A job that someone runs every morning becomes a job.execute call at the end of an n8n workflow, and the workflow decides when the moment has come. That decision can come from anywhere n8n reaches: a form, a monitoring alert, a row added to Google Sheets.

Second pattern: a human in the loop. Someone posts a request in Slack, the workflow reads it, and only then executes the job with the Arguments the request carried. Rundeck stays the place where the job is defined and audited. n8n only supplies the inputs and the timing.

Third pattern, the quiet one: checking before acting. job.getMetadata reads the metadata of a job from its ID, which is handy when the ID comes from a spreadsheet or a form and nobody wants a blind execution. Run the metadata step first, branch on what comes back, execute only on the branch you trust.

Two operations is a small surface, and that is deliberate on the n8n side. When you need an endpoint of the Rundeck API that the dedicated node does not carry, the HTTP Request node calls it directly and reuses the same Rundeck credential through predefined authentication, so you are not managing a second token.

Because Rundeck has no trigger node in n8n, every Rundeck workflow starts with something else: a Schedule Trigger on a fixed interval, an n8n Webhook called by a third-party service, or the trigger of another tool. That shapes the whole design. Pair the execution with a message through Telegram or an email through SendGrid, and the people who used to run the job by hand still see it happen.

Connect

How do you connect Rundeck to n8n?

  1. 01

    Create the Rundeck credential in n8n

    Open the Credentials menu in n8n and pick Rundeck. A credential is a stored login that you create once and reuse in every workflow, and the node offers it in a dropdown afterwards. Two fields are waiting: URL, which takes the base URL of your Rundeck server, written like http://myserver:4440, and Token.

  2. 02

    Generate a user API token in Rundeck

    The Token field expects a user API token, and API token is the authentication method the Rundeck credential supports. Generate it from your Rundeck account under Profile, then User API Tokens, and paste the value straight into the credential. It assumes you already have a user account on a Rundeck server, which is the one prerequisite the n8n docs list for this credential.

  3. 03

    Copy the job ID out of the Rundeck dashboard

    Open your Rundeck dashboard, then the project holding the job. Select JOBS in the sidebar, open All Jobs, and click the name of the job. In the top left corner, under the job name, sits a string in smaller font. That string is the job ID, and it goes in the Job Id field of the n8n node.

Actions

What can the Rundeck node do?

The Rundeck node exposes 2 operations across 1 resources. For each one: the node as you configure it in n8n, the required fields, and our field notes.

Resources × operations matrix
ResourceExecuteGet Metadata
Job✓✓

Job

2 operations
01

Execute a job

job.execute

What you see in n8n

Notes & use cases

Starts a Rundeck job from the workflow. The stored credential reaches your server and asks for that job, identified by its ID, to be executed.

Key parameters

  • Job ID: required, the string Rundeck shows under the job name (placeholder: Rundeck Job ID). Type it in, or feed it from an earlier node with {{ $json.field }}. A required field left empty stops the node.
  • Arguments: optional, the collection labelled Add Argument, for the arguments that go with the job.
  • Filter: optional text field that filters Rundeck nodes by name, placeholder Add Filters.
Use cases
an alert lands in n8n, the workflow executes the restart job, and the on-call person reads about it in Discord.
02

Get metadata of a job

job.getMetadata

What you see in n8n

Notes & use cases

Reads the metadata Rundeck holds about one job, picked by its ID, and hands it to the next node in the workflow.

Key parameters

  • Job ID: required, the same identifier you copy from under the job name in the Rundeck dashboard. When the ID arrives from a form or a sheet, reference it with {{ $json.field }} rather than hard-coding it.
Use cases
a small inventory workflow walks a list of job IDs on a schedule, calls this operation on each one, and writes what it gets back into a sheet, so the team has a current picture of the jobs it automates instead of a wiki page nobody updated since last year.
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FAQ

Rundeck and n8n, the questions that come up

01Is the Rundeck n8n integration free to use?
Yes. The Rundeck node ships with n8n, so there is nothing to install and nothing extra to pay on the n8n side. It behaves the same on n8n Cloud, the hosted offer run by n8n, and on an instance you host yourself with Docker or npm under the Community Edition and its Sustainable Use license. A workflow built in one runs in the other without changes. What your Rundeck server itself costs is a separate question, and this page does not answer it. The only thing you need before starting is a user account on a Rundeck server, because that account is where the API token comes from.
02What credentials does the Rundeck node need?
An API token. That is the authentication method the Rundeck credential supports in n8n, and the credential form has two fields. URL takes the base URL of your Rundeck server, for example http://myserver:4440. Token takes a user API token, which you generate from your Rundeck account under Profile, then User API Tokens. You fill this in once from the Credentials menu, and every Rundeck node in every workflow can then pick it from a dropdown. If you later add HTTP Request calls to the Rundeck API, the same credential covers them through n8n's predefined authentication.
03What are the limits of the Rundeck node in n8n?
The node carries 2 operations, both on the Job resource: Execute a job and Get metadata of a job. Both are addressed by a job ID, which means the job has to exist in Rundeck first and you have to know its identifier. For any endpoint of the Rundeck API outside that catalogue, the HTTP Request node calls it directly and reuses the same Rundeck credential through predefined authentication, so nothing is locked. In practice, teams combine the two: the dedicated node for the everyday execution, HTTP Request for the one call a quarter that nobody wants to build a habit around.
04Can Rundeck trigger an n8n workflow?
Not directly. Rundeck has no trigger node in n8n, so a workflow around it starts with something else. Three usual entry points: the Schedule Trigger, which fires on a fixed interval and suits nightly or hourly jobs; the n8n Webhook node, which gives you a URL that a third-party service calls when something happens on its side; or the trigger of another tool already in your stack of automations, such as a new message or a new row somewhere. From there the Rundeck node executes the job. Design the workflow around that entry point and the rest follows.
05n8n or Make for Rundeck?
It depends on where you want the automation to live. Make, formerly Integromat, is a hosted automation platform with no self-hosting option and billing per operation. n8n runs on its own Cloud or on your own server, which matters when the workflow talks to an internal Rundeck server that never faces the public internet. Data control points the same way: self-hosted n8n keeps the executions on infrastructure you own. The cost models differ too, per operation on one side, per instance or plan on the other. Visual logic is a matter of taste, so try both on one real job before deciding.
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