n8n-nodes-schedule-range

An n8n community node that adds an optional Start Date / End Date
range to each rule of a recurring schedule. It behaves like n8n's built-in
Schedule Trigger, but ticks outside a rule's own range are silently
skipped - no item is emitted, no error is thrown, and the workflow doesn't
need to be manually activated/deactivated around a date range.

Built with @n8n/node-cli,
n8n's official tooling for community nodes.

Why

n8n's native Schedule Trigger has no concept of "only run between these two
dates". Common cases where that's missing:

• Ramp up polling frequency only in the days before something is expected
  to happen (e.g. a domain becoming available again), without touching the
  workflow by hand.
• A seasonal or campaign-limited automation that should stop firing after a
  known end date without a separate cleanup step.
• Running a low-frequency "baseline" rule indefinitely and a high-frequency
  rule only during a known critical stretch - in the same node, since
  ranges are per rule, not global.

Features

• Same rule types as the native Schedule Trigger: seconds, minutes, hours,
  days, weeks (by weekday), months, or a raw cron expression.
• Each rule gets its own optional Start Date / End Date. A rule with
  neither set behaves exactly like the native trigger - always active.
• Multiple rules can run side by side in one node, each with an
  independent range (e.g. a daily rule that's always on, plus an hourly
  rule scoped to a two-week stretch).
• Range boundaries are inclusive on both ends and account for the few
  milliseconds of scheduler jitter a cron tick can arrive with, so a tick
  meant for the exact boundary second isn't dropped by a timing accident.
• Manual "test step" always fires immediately, regardless of any range -
  same behaviour as the native trigger.
• Zero runtime dependencies: cron parsing and next-run computation
  (CronEngine.ts) are implemented from scratch rather than pulling in the
  cron package, per n8n's community-node guidelines (runtime
  dependencies aren't allowed).

Install

In the n8n UI (recommended): go to Settings → Community Nodes →
Install a community node, and enter n8n-nodes-schedule-range. Requires
N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ENABLED=true (the default) in your n8n
environment.

Manually, e.g. for a self-hosted/Docker instance without the UI
installer enabled:

docker exec -it <your-n8n-container> sh
cd ~/.n8n/nodes
npm install n8n-nodes-schedule-range
exit
docker restart <your-n8n-container>

~/.n8n/nodes is n8n's manual community-node install location - it's part
of the same persistent volume as your workflows, so this survives
container recreation.

Usage

1. Add the Schedule Trigger (with Range) node as your workflow's
   trigger.
2. Add one or more Trigger Rules, configured exactly like the native
   Schedule Trigger (seconds / minutes / hours / days / weeks / months /
   raw cron expression).
3. Within a rule, expand Range and optionally add Start Date
   and/or End Date. Leave either unset for an open-ended range on
   that side. Leave both unset for a rule that's always active.
4. Activate the workflow. A rule whose Start Date is not strictly before
   its End Date, or whose cron expression is malformed, is rejected at
   activation time with a clear error - not silently at the first tick.

Outside a rule's range, its underlying schedule still computes its next
occurrence internally, but no execution is created and no item leaves the
node for that tick - so downstream nodes never run for it. Other rules on
the same node with their own (or no) range are unaffected.

Development

This project uses n8n's official node tooling (@n8n/node-cli):

npm install
npm run dev      # starts a local n8n instance with this node loaded, hot-reloading
npm test         # runs the Jest suite (CronEngine.ts, RangeSchedule.ts - both pure, no n8n dependency)
npm run lint     # n8n's community-node linter
npm run build    # compiles to dist/

The scheduling logic lives in two dependency-free modules, unit-tested in
isolation from n8n itself:

• CronEngine.ts - cron expression parsing and next-run-time computation,
  including timezone handling.
• RangeSchedule.ts - the per-rule Start/End Date range logic, and
  translating a Trigger Rule into a cron expression for CronEngine.

Compatibility

Verified against n8n 2.33.7, self-hosted, internal task runner mode
(n8n-workflow API version 1).

Scope limitations

The custom cron engine covers everything this node itself generates, plus
the common cases for hand-written cron expressions: numeric lists, ranges,
steps, and wildcards across 5 or 6 fields, plus the standard 3-letter
month/weekday name aliases (JAN-DEC, SUN-SAT, case-insensitive). It
does not support special characters like L, W, or #.

License

MIT