metadata
title: External hooks environment variables
description: >-
Environment variables to integrate external hooks into your self-hosted n8n
instance.
contentType: reference
tags:
- environment variables
hide:
- toc
- tags
External hooks environment variables
--8<-- "_snippets/self-hosting/file-based-configuration.md"
You can define external hooks that n8n executes whenever a specific operation runs. Refer to Backend hooks for examples of available hooks and Hook files for information on file formatting.
| Variable | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
EXTERNAL_HOOK_FILES |
String | Files containing backend external hooks. Provide multiple files as a colon-separated list (":"). |
EXTERNAL_FRONTEND_HOOKS_URLS |
String | URLs to files containing frontend external hooks. Provide multiple URLs as a colon-separated list (":"). |