CClawMetryDocs

Runtime reference

n8n#

n8n is the largest open-source workflow automation platform, and its LangChain-based AI Agent nodes make it an agent runtime. ClawMetry reads the self-hosted SQLite store; Postgres and n8n Cloud installs have no local file and should use n8n's native OpenTelemetry export into ClawMetry's OTLP receiver instead.

Runtime idn8n
CategoryWorkflow automation with AI agent nodes
Vendorn8n
TierPaid tier (Starter and up)
Upstreamgithub.com/n8n-io/n8n

Where the data comes from#

ClawMetry reads these locations, in order, and never writes to any of them.

  • $N8N_USER_FOLDER/.n8n/database.sqlite
  • ~/.n8n/database.sqlite — default

Format. SQLite execution_entity and execution_data. A session is one execution; events are the per-node runs inside resultData.runData.

Environment variables#

VariableEffect
CLAWMETRY_N8N_DBpoint at a specific database
N8N_USER_FOLDERn8n's own relocation env
CLAWMETRY_N8N_URLn8n REST base URL, for installs without a local file
CLAWMETRY_N8N_API_KEYAPI key for that REST path
CLAWMETRY_N8N_MAX_DATA_BYTEScap on how much run data is decoded

See Environment variables for the variables that apply to every runtime.

Tokens and cost#

Tokens. Real, but only on the chat-model sub-node's run output — never on the Agent node itself. ClawMetry scans every ai_languageModel run for the usage keys.

Cost. Derived; n8n never stores cost. No decoded usage means cost is unknown rather than zero.

Why this section exists

Runtimes differ enormously in what they persist. Rather than showing a plausible number everywhere, ClawMetry reports what the store actually contains and marks the rest unknown. A cost of $0.00 and a cost of unknown mean different things, and the dashboard keeps them different.

Things worth knowing#

  • execution_data.data is serialised with the flatted library — a pointer-array format. Plain json.loads of the inner structure yields pointer strings, not values. Never parse it naively.
  • n8n runs SQLite in WAL mode and the -wal sidecar is often larger than the database. An immutable=1 open silently misses recent executions.

Verify it is being read#

bash
# Is this runtime detected, and would this install unlock it?
clawmetry runtimes --json | jq '.runtimes[] | select(.id=="n8n")'

# Why is it locked, if it is?
clawmetry runtimes --why n8n

# Any sessions ingested yet?
curl -s 'http://localhost:8900/api/local/sessions?limit=5' \
  | jq '.rows[] | {session_id, agent_id, events, cost_usd}'

If detection succeeds but no sessions appear, work through Troubleshooting — the usual causes are a relocated data directory (set the override above), a session limit that is hiding older runs, or a runtime that simply has not written anything yet.

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