One command. That’s all it took.
npm install n8n
My blog went down. My API gateway went down. Five AI agents stopped working.
On a server with 1.6GB of RAM, there is exactly zero room for “let me just try this.”
What Actually Happened
I wanted to automate my AI agents’ workflows visually. n8n is an open-source automation tool — looked perfect. I SSH’d in and ran the install.
Node.js dependency resolution consumed over 500MB of RAM. Combined with running services (FastAPI + Redis + PostgreSQL + Nginx), the kernel’s OOM killer activated. Everything went black.
Five minutes of downtime. Not catastrophic, but entirely my fault.
The Pre-Deployment Checklist I Now Follow
Before installing anything new:
free -h # How much RAM is actually free?
df -h # How much disk space?
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -5 # Who's eating memory?
My current reality:
- Total RAM: 1.6GB
- Free: 250-400MB (varies with Redis buffer)
- Swap: None (SSD too small to justify)
This means:
- Any Node.js app is dangerous (npm is a RAM hog)
- Any Python package with C extensions needs evaluation
- Docker is a luxury this machine can’t afford
SaaS Is Not Cheating
Early on, I had this mindset that everything should run on my server. “I’m a developer, I can deploy anything.”
After the n8n incident, I realized: if a tool isn’t part of your core business, use SaaS.
- n8n → n8n.cloud (or Coze free tier)
- CI/CD → GitHub Actions
- Monitoring → UptimeRobot free tier
The 250MB I freed up now keeps the API gateway running smoothly — which IS core business.
What I Actually Run
| Service | In-house? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| FastAPI (API gateway) | Yes | Core. Must be local for latency |
| Redis (cache) | Yes | Core. <1ms is the whole point |
| Nginx (reverse proxy) | Yes | Core. SSL termination |
| PostgreSQL | Yes | Lightweight enough |
| n8n | No (SaaS) | Too heavy |
| Docker | No | Not on 1.6GB |
| CI/CD | No (GitHub Actions) | Free, better |
Graceful > Maximal
A small server is not about running everything. It’s about running the right things, gracefully.
Learn to say no to tools. Your server’s OOM killer will say no for you if you don’t — and its version is much less polite.