n8n node

Installing the Cosend node in n8n, setting up the credential, and which key to use — the page the node's own credential help links to.

n8n-nodes-cosend is a community node: five resources, a webhook-based trigger, and no runtime dependencies at all.

The n8n page is what the node does and why. This page is installing it and getting the credential right, and the trigger is the other half.

Installing

On a self-hosted instance, an owner or an admin installs it by package name:

n8n-nodes-cosend

Settings → Community nodes → Install a community node → paste the name. Members of the instance can then use it; only owners and admins can install.

Two environment variables govern whether that is possible at all, and both default to enabled: N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ENABLED turns community nodes on, and N8N_UNVERIFIED_PACKAGES_ENABLED allows installing ones outside n8n’s reviewed index. If your instance has either set to false, that is an instance policy rather than something the package can change.

It is published to npm with provenance from a public build workflow, so the tarball on the registry can be traced back to the commit it came from. It is MIT licensed.

Credentials

The node has one credential, and it is one field plus a host.

Once saved, hit Test. The node calls the identity endpoint, which is the one endpoint guaranteed never to fail for authorization reasons if the credential resolves at all — so a green tick means the key is real, and a red one means the key is wrong rather than the permissions being wrong. That distinction is worth having before you build anything on top.

Which key to use

Least privilege, and the answer depends on the workflow rather than on convenience.

• A workflow that is about one number — one shop, one support line — should use a connection key. It cannot reach any other connection, so a mistake in the workflow cannot reach a different number’s customers.
• A workflow that spans several numbers needs an organization key, which reaches every connection in the organization and carries scopes you set when you create it.

Neither key can be recovered after creation. The full string is shown once and stored hashed, so if it is lost you rotate it in the dashboard and update the credential.

Use a csk_test_ or cok_test_ key while you are building. The credential is the mode — there is no test toggle on the node — and test traffic is excluded from your usage counters.

What the node does not do

• It is not called “WhatsApp”, and that is deliberate. n8n ships its own WhatsApp Business Cloud node. This one integrates Cosend: conversations, contacts, automations and usage, which have no Cloud API equivalent. Sending a message is one operation on one of its five resources.
• It never points at Meta. The only host it calls is the one in the credential.

Errors

The node surfaces the API’s error envelope rather than flattening it, so the code in a failed node’s output is the one in the error reference and the request_id is the one to quote to support.