Nightly n8n GitHub Backup Workflow with Cron & HTTP

Nightly n8n GitHub Backup Workflow with Cron & HTTP

Automatically back up your GitHub repository every night with an n8n workflow that runs on a Cron schedule and uses HTTP requests (with Basic Auth) to coordinate with your n8n instance.

What this workflow does

• Runs nightly at 23:59 (you can configure a different time bin in the Cron node).
• Connects to GitHub by configuring the GitHub nodes with your username, repo name, and the file path you want to back up.
• Triggers the workflow actions via HTTP by making requests to localhost:5678 using HTTP Request nodes.
• Uses Basic Auth for those HTTP requests—set your n8n instance username and password in the HTTP Request node credentials.

Important: This workflow uses the internal API (not an official interface). It might break in the future if n8n internal APIs change.

Use cases

• SaaS operators who want a simple, repeatable nightly GitHub backup process for specific repository files.
• Automation engineers who need scheduled GitHub retrieval and an internal coordination step via HTTP Request to localhost:5678.
• Teams that prefer using n8n scheduling (Cron) rather than external schedulers for backup routines.

Technical details

• Cron (nightly schedule at 23:59; configurable time bin)
• GitHub nodes (configured with username, repo name, and file path)
• HTTP Request nodes to localhost:5678 with Basic Auth
• Additional workflow logic nodes: Function and Merge

Set it up once, tune the Cron time, and let n8n handle your nightly GitHub backup routine.