Installing Node-RED

Node-RED is published as a node.js module available on npm, as well as a container available on Docker Hub.

The full guide for installing and running Node-RED is available here.

Linux

The following steps assume you are running on Windows or OSX. If you are running on a Linux OS, or a device like a Raspberry Pi, the project provides a set of install scripts that will get node, npm and Node-RED all installed at the latest stable versions. Refer to the docs linked above.

You must have a supported version of Node.js installed. Node-RED supports the Active and LTS releases, 12.x and 14.x.

You can then install Node-RED as a global module with the command:

npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red

Depending on your Node.js installation, you may need to run this command using sudo.

The install log output may contain some warnings - these can be ignored as long as the output ends with something like:

+ node-red@1.2.2
added 332 packages from 341 contributors in 18.494s

Running Node-RED

Once installed, you should now have the node-red command available to run.

Command not found

If you do not have the node-red command available it may be a problem with your PATH configuration.

Find where your global node modules are installed by running:

 npm get prefix

Then ensure the bin subdirectory of that location is on your PATH.

When you run node-red, the log output will appear

23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info]

Welcome to Node-RED
===================

23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Node-RED version: v1.2.2
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Node.js  version: v12.19.0
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Darwin 18.7.0 x64 LE
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Loading palette nodes
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Settings file  : /Users/nol/.node-red/settings.js
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] User directory : /Users/nol/.node-red
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Flows file     : /Users/nol/.node-red/flows.json
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Starting flows
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Started flows

This output contains an important piece of information you will need - the location of your User directory.

Accessing the Node-RED editor

Assuming you are running Node-RED on your local computer, open a browser and access the url http://127.0.0.1:1880/. This will load the Node-RED editor - the tool used to build your applications.

Next Steps

The next task is to Install extra nodes into the palette.