@brave/n8n-nodes-brave-search

n8n-nodes-brave-search

This is an n8n community node. It lets you use the Brave Search API in your n8n workflows.

Power your search and AI apps with the fastest growing independent search engine since Bing. Access an index of billions of pages with a single call. Get started for free at https://brave.com/search/api/.

n8n is a fair-code licensed workflow automation platform.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Operations
• Credentials
• Compatibility
• Usage
• Resources
• Development
• Version history

Installation

Follow the installation guide in the n8n community nodes documentation.

Operations

This node presently supports search operations for general web results, as well as images, news, and videos.

Credentials

An API key is required in order to issue calls to the Brave Search API. Get started for FREE with 1 query/second, and 2,000 queries/month. Sign up to retrieve your API key at https://brave.com/search/api/.

Compatibility

Tested locally against n8n v1.93.0.

Usage

You should familarize yourself with the various response objects, to understand what data is provided by the API, and how to access individual insights. Response object formats are available in the Brave Search API documentation. For example, to understand how a standard Web Search response looks, you can visit https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/documentation/web-search/responses.

Resources

• n8n community nodes documentation
• Brave Search API documentation

Development

To streamline and accelerate the development process, follow these steps:

Quick Start (Recommended)

• Install n8n globally (pnpm add -g n8n).
• Install dependencies: pnpm install
• Run the full development environment: pnpm run dev:full
• Open the n8n editor UI in your browser (typically at http://localhost:5678).

The dev:full script automatically:

• Builds the project
• Starts TypeScript compilation in watch mode
• Launches n8n with the proper environment variables set
• Enables hot reloading for development

Manual Development Setup

If you prefer to run commands separately:

• Install n8n globally (pnpm add -g n8n).
• Install dependencies: pnpm install
• Build the project: pnpm build
• Start TypeScript watch mode: pnpm dev
• In a separate terminal, start n8n: pnpm run dev:n8n

Alternative: System Environment Variables

You can also set environment variables manually if preferred:

• Set N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS to the /dist directory of this repository
• Set N8N_DEV_RELOAD to true
• Run pnpm run dev and n8n start separately

You should now be able to search for and use the Brave Search node in your n8n workflows.

First-Time Setup Notes

Important: When launching n8n locally for the first time, the startup process may take 1-2 minutes to initialize. Wait for the "Editor is now accessible via web browser" message in the terminal before opening your browser.

On first access to http://localhost:5678, you'll be prompted to create an admin user account for your local n8n instance.

Remember: You'll need to configure your Brave Search API credentials in the n8n interface before the node will function. See the Credentials section above for API key information.

If you encounter issues or need to start fresh, you can reset n8n to its initial state by running n8n user-management:reset.