github.com/Zie619/automation-stack @main

🚀 Automation Stack – Full Self-Hosted Deployment Guide

This repo sets up:

• n8n automation with Redis & PostgreSQL
• WhatsApp MCP (Multi-tool control API)
• React dashboard at /ui
• Cloudflare tunneling (HTTPS access without ports)
• Auto-start & daily Postgres backup

☁️ Requirements

• A domain name (required for Cloudflare tunnels)
• Docker & Docker Compose
• curl, git, and crontab (Linux)

---

📦 1. Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/Zie619/automation-stack.git
cd automation-stack

---

🌐 2. Install & Configure Cloudflared

Linux:

wget https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb

Mac:

brew install cloudflared

Windows:

winget install --id Cloudflare.cloudflared
# or
choco install cloudflared

Login and create tunnel

cloudflared tunnel login
cloudflared tunnel create n8n-tunnel-example

After login, note the JSON credentials path. For example: /root/.cloudflared/ac167143-2428-4b3c-91fc-0d1579e984cf.json

Create config.yml

Linux:

sudo nano /etc/cloudflared/config.yml

Windows: Edit C:\Users\Administrator\.cloudflared\config.yml

tunnel: n8n-tunnel
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/your-tunnel.json

ingress:
  - hostname: n8n.yourdomain.com
    service: http://localhost:5678
  - hostname: whatsapp.yourdomain.com
    service: http://localhost:8000
  - hostname: dashboard.yourdomain.com
    service: http://localhost:5137
  - service: http_status:404

in cloudflare go to the dns managment and add the domains as in the image whatsapp.yourdomain.com and dashboard.yourdomain.com

Enable tunnel on boot (Linux)

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/cloudflared.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=cloudflared
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/cloudflared --no-autoupdate --config /etc/cloudflared/config.yml tunnel run
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl enable cloudflared
sudo systemctl start cloudflared

Manual (Windows):

Open terminal and run:

cloudflared tunnel run n8n-tunnel-example

---

🔐 3. Setup .env File

Create a .env file in the root folder:

# PostgreSQL
POSTGRES_USER=yourusername
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=yourpassword
POSTGRES_DB=n8n
POSTGRES_PORT=5432
POSTGRES_HOST=postgres

# Redis
REDIS_HOST=redis
QUEUE_MODE=redis

# n8n
N8N_PORT=5678
N8N_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
N8N_AUTH_USER=yourusername
N8N_AUTH_PASS=yourpassword
N8N_BASE_URL=https://n8n.yourdomain.com
N8N_WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.yourdomain.com

# WhatsApp MCP
MCP_PORT=8000
MCP_AUTH_USER=yourusername
MCP_AUTH_PASS=yourpassword

---

🧱 4. Build & Launch Docker Services

Build React UI (required only if using dashboard):

cd whatsapp-mcp/whatsapp-dashboard
npm install
npm run build

Build Docker containers:

cd automation-stack
docker compose build
docker compose up -d

💡 Don't want the UI? Comment/remove this line in docker-compose.yml under whatsapp-mcp-server service:

- ./whatsapp-mcp/whatsapp-dashboard/dist:/app/whatsapp-mcp-server/ui

---

♻️ 5. Auto-Restart & Daily Backup (Linux)

crontab -e

Paste the following:

@reboot sleep 30 && cd /root/n8n && docker compose up -d
@reboot sleep 60 && cd /root/automation-stack && docker compose build whatsapp-mcp-server && docker compose up -d whatsapp-mcp-server
0 2 * * * /root/backup_postgres.sh

---

🗄️ 6. PostgreSQL Backup

Backups are saved automatically in n8n_postgres_backups/ To restore:

docker exec -i n8n-postgres psql -U yourusername -d n8n < backup_file.sql

---

🔌 7. WhatsApp MCP API & GPT Tooling

Use Basic Auth: - Username: MCP_AUTH_USER - Password: MCP_AUTH_PASS

Run tool:

POST https://whatsapp.yourdomain.com/run_tool

List GPT-compatible tools:

GET https://whatsapp.yourdomain.com/openai-tools

Output format is OpenAI function-call compatible.

---

🧠 8. React UI Dashboard

UI location: https://whatsapp.yourdomain.com/ui

Rebuild after changes:

cd whatsapp-mcp/whatsapp-dashboard
npm run build
cd automation-stack
docker compose build whatsapp-mcp-server
docker compose up -d whatsapp-mcp-server

---

📲 9. Link WhatsApp Device (Scan QR Code)

Before using the WhatsApp MCP server, you must link a WhatsApp account to it by scanning a QR code.

📸 Step-by-Step

1. Ensure the WhatsApp bridge container is running:

docker ps | grep whatsapp-bridge

If it's not running:

docker compose up -d whatsapp-bridge

1. View the QR code from logs:

docker logs -f whatsapp-bridge

Scroll up until you see a QR code printed as ASCII art in the terminal.

1. Open WhatsApp on your phone:

2. Go to Settings → Linked Devices

3. Tap Link a Device

4. Scan the QR code displayed in the terminal

5. Wait for confirmation. The terminal will show authenticated or ready.

You are now connected. Your WhatsApp account is ready to send/receive messages via the MCP tools.

---

Let me know if you want this injected directly into the README file as well.

---

🌍 Subdomains Recap

Subdomain	Description
n8n.yourdomain.com	n8n Automation Interface
whatsapp.yourdomain.com	WhatsApp MCP API & UI
dashboard.yourdomain.com	Optional: React Dashboard UI

---

🧰 Maintenance

Restart WhatsApp MCP:

docker compose restart whatsapp-bridge whatsapp-mcp-server

View logs:

docker logs -f whatsapp-mcp-server

---

🪢 How to Use the whatsapp MCP in n8n

Go to n8n, add a costum mcp node and figure it out ;) maybe in a later update I will add a section on that.

---

🤖 Optiontional - if you are going to fork this repo or use git, add a gitignore file

optional git ignore for begginers:

# === PYTHON ===
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*.egg
*.egg-info/
dist/
build/
.env
.venv/
venv/
*.log

# === NODE / REACT (dashboard) ===
node_modules/
*.log
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*
.pnpm-debug.log
*.lock
whatsapp-mcp/whatsapp-dashboard/dist/

# === DOCKER / SYSTEM ===
*.pid
*.sock
docker-compose.override.yml

# === BACKUPS ===
n8n_postgres_backups/
*.sql
*.dump

# === OS / SYSTEM ===
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
ehthumbs.db
*.swp
*.swo
*~

# === CLOUD FLARE TUNNEL CREDENTIALS (should never be committed) ===
/.root/.cloudflared/
*.pem
*.json

# === IDE SETTINGS ===
.vscode/
.idea/

👤 Maintainer

Eliad Shahar – Open source automation enthusiast.

lharries Credit: lharries Whatsapp mcp