Tech Tip: How to Extract Decrypted Credentials & Workflow Settings from Self-Hosted n8n

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When migrating automated workflows to for example custom Python scripts, you often need the exact API tokens, secrets, or chat parameters configured inside your self-hosted n8n instance.

Because the n8n web UI masks sensitive values (displaying dots or grayed-out inputs), you cannot simply copy-paste tokens from the web browser. However, since you host the instance, you can bypass UI masking and extract decrypted credentials or workflow data directly via the n8n CLI.

1. Extracting Decrypted API Credentials via Docker

n8n encrypts all stored credentials in its internal database. Using the --decrypted flag with the built-in server CLI allows you to dump all access tokens, API keys, and secret pairs in plain text directly to standard output.

Command Execution

Run the following command against your running n8n container (node user):

docker exec -u node n8n export:credentials --all --decrypted

Output Example

The command returns a clean JSON array containing all decrypted authentication fields:

[ { "id": "1", "name": "Telegram account", "type": "telegramApi", "data": { "accessToken": "123456789:ABCdefGhIJKlmNoPQRsTUVwxyZ" } } ]

2. Exporting Workflows to File & Extracting Target IDs with jq

Workflow files can be extremely large when exported to terminal standard output. To inspect target settings—such as Telegram chatId fields, webhook URLs, or channel names—export the workflows directly to a file on your host machine and filter the JSON tree using jq.

Step 1: Export Workflows to Host JSON File

Redirect the n8n workflow export directly to a local JSON file:

docker exec -u node n8n export:workflow --all > n8n-workflows.json

Step 2: Query Specific Fields across All Nodes with jq

Because workflows contain deeply nested node parameters, use jq’s recursive descent operator (..) to extract specific properties across all configured nodes regardless of workflow complexity.

To find all Telegram target IDs (chatId or chat_id keys):

jq '.. | .chatId? // .chat_id? | select(. != null)' n8n-workflows.json

Output Example

"987654321" "-1001234567890"

Summary Cheat Sheet

TaskCommand
Dump Decrypted Secretsdocker exec -u node n8n export:credentials –all –decrypted
Export Workflows to Hostdocker exec -u node n8n export:workflow –all > workflows.json
Extract Specific Key via jqjq ‘.. | .<KEY_NAME>? | select(. != null)’ workflows.json