Flowise npm latest on Node 24.22.1: our test log

Flowise failed to install from npm on Node 24.22.1 after 106.2 s: the better-sqlite3 native build needed a C++ toolchain this machine lacks.

By Agentic Weekly, operated independently from Texas, US · Published Oct 25, 2026 · Last updated Oct 26, 2026 (America/Chicago) · How we work

Tested by us on 2026-10-25. Local open-weight model, not the vendor's hosted models. A smoke test on a CPU-only box, not a benchmark.

Result at a glance

Flowise test record
Field	Value
Result	Failed
Version tested	npm latest on Node 24.22.1
Date and time	2026-10-25, 22:41 CDT (America/Chicago)
Task	Install the flowise package from npm on Node 24 and start it. Pass means the server starts; we never got past the install.
Model used	Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct (Q4_K_M) through Ollama 0.40.11
Hardware	Linux x86_64 virtual machine (Debian 13), 8 vCPU (Intel Xeon, 1 thread per core), 15 GiB RAM, no GPU
Install result	failed after 106.2 s (exit 1)

What we found

The install exited with code 1 after 106 s; a prebuilt better-sqlite3 binary for this Node version was not available, so npm tried to compile it.
We did not install a compiler and retry, so this is a result about a minimal machine, not about Flowise at runtime.

What we ran, step by step

Commands run, wall-clock time and exit code
Step	Wall time	Exit code	Notes
npm install on Node 24	1 min 46 s	1	Failed while rebuilding better-sqlite3 with node-gyp 8.4.1; machine has gcc but no make, g++ or cmake. Load 2.56.

Exact commands (paths shortened)

# npm install on Node 24
npm install flowise

Raw output (excerpts)

Tail of the npm error output

t ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:324:12)
npm error gyp ERR! System Linux 6.12.94+
npm error gyp ERR! command "/workspace/tests2/tools/node-v24.22.1-linux-x64/bin/node" "/workspace/tests2/work/npm24/flowise/node_modules/.bin/node-gyp" "rebuild" "--release"
npm error gyp ERR! cwd /workspace/tests2/work/npm24/flowise/node_modules/better-sqlite3
npm error gyp ERR! node -v v24.22.1
npm error gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v8.4.1
npm error gyp ERR! not ok
npm notice
npm notice New major version of npm available! 11.19.1 -> 12.2.1
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v12.2.1
npm notice To update run: npm install -g npm@12.2.1
npm notice
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /tmp/npmcache24-flowise/_logs/2026-10-26T03_41_20_913Z-debug-0.log

Gotchas and things that broke

Native add-ons need a C++ toolchain on machines where no prebuilt binary matches your Node version. Flowise's Docker image avoids this; we did not test it.

What we did not test

Everything after install: starting the server, building a flow, and Docker.

Reproduce it

Versions change. These commands install whatever is latest on the day you run them unless a version is pinned, so expect different results later. The version we measured is in the table above.

# on a machine with Node 24 and no build tools
npm install flowise

How to read this test

Every number on this page was measured on this one machine, which also ran other jobs, so timings are indicative and vary run to run. A pass means our small task worked once or as stated, a fail means it did not work as we ran it; neither says how the tool behaves with a vendor's frontier model, on a GPU, or at scale. Where a tool could not run without an account or a GPU, we say so instead of guessing.

See the testing rig for the hardware, the local model and the rules we follow, and the test hub for every other test.

Langflow: Langflow 1.13.0 installed in 19.76 s (1.7 GB) and its backend was healthy 91.5 s after launch, serving 26 starter flows and 416 components.
n8n: n8n 2.44.6 installed from npm on Node 24 in 1 min 54 s (2,343 packages), imported a three-node workflow from the CLI and executed it: a Code node returned 42 and a request to a local model returned "42".
Open WebUI: Open WebUI 0.12.4 installed with uv in 11.6 s (6,977 MB in the virtualenv), was healthy about 11 to 12 s after start, and answered a chat through its API in 0.68 s using a local Ollama model.

All test logs · How we test

FAQ

Does Flowise install on a bare machine?

Not on ours: npm install failed compiling better-sqlite3 on Node 24 without make or g++.

Sources

Flowise repository (fetched 2026-10-25)

Markdown version for agents: /tests/flowise.md