Download and Save a File to Local Machine

Overview

This workflow downloads a file from a public URL and saves it directly to a specified location on your local machine. It is a simple, single-purpose automation that demonstrates how to fetch binary data (like images, PDFs, or ZIP files) via HTTP and write it to disk using n8n's file system integration. This is useful for quickly grabbing assets from the web, backing up files, or processing downloaded content in subsequent steps.

Workflow Steps

1. On clicking 'execute' (Manual Trigger) — No auth required. This node starts the workflow when you manually click the "Execute Workflow" button in the n8n editor. It has no parameters and simply acts as the entry point.

2. HTTP Request (HTTP Request) — No auth required. This node fetches the file from the specified URL (https://docs.n8n.io/assets/img/n8n-logo.png). The responseFormat is set to "file", which tells n8n to treat the response as binary data rather than JSON or text. The options object is empty, meaning no custom headers, query parameters, or authentication are configured.

3. Write Binary File (Write Binary File) — No auth required. This node takes the binary data from the previous step and writes it to the file system. The fileName parameter is set to /Users/tanay/Desktop/n8n-logo.png, which is the absolute path where the file will be saved. The file name and extension are derived from this path.

Setup Instructions

• No external accounts or services required. This workflow runs entirely on your local n8n instance.
• Ensure the target directory (e.g., /Users/tanay/Desktop/) exists and that the n8n process has write permissions to it.
• To download a different file, edit the HTTP Request node's URL parameter and update the Write Binary File node's fileName to match the desired save location and file name.

Use Cases and Variations

• Download website assets — Replace the URL with any publicly accessible file (image, CSS, JS, PDF) to save it locally for offline use or archiving.
• Backup remote files — Combine with a Schedule Trigger to periodically download a file (e.g., a daily report or configuration file) and save it with a timestamp in the filename.
• Process downloaded files — Add nodes after Write Binary File to read the saved file, extract text (e.g., with a PDF extractor), or upload it to cloud storage (Google Drive, S3, etc.).
• Dynamic file naming — Use expressions in the fileName parameter to include data from the HTTP response (e.g., ={{ $json.headers['content-disposition'] }}) or the current date/time.

{
  "id": "160",
  "name": "Write a file to the host machine",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "On clicking 'execute'",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.manualTrigger",
      "position": [
        260,
        300
      ],
      "parameters": {},
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "HTTP Request",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "position": [
        460,
        300
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "url": "https://docs.n8n.io/assets/img/n8n-logo.png",
        "options": {},
        "responseFormat": "file"
      },
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "Write Binary File",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.writeBinaryFile",
      "position": [
        660,
        300
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "fileName": "/Users/tanay/Desktop/n8n-logo.png"
      },
      "typeVersion": 1
    }
  ],
  "active": false,
  "settings": {},
  "connections": {
    "HTTP Request": {
      "main": [
        [
          {
            "node": "Write Binary File",
            "type": "main",
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)