Bug Description

Despite N8N_BLOCK_ENV_ACCESS_IN_NODE being set to false, the UI still errors out with [ERROR: access to env vars denied]. This makes it hard to actually know that it is proper without doing a runtime test.

To Reproduce

This is particular for the self-hosted version and not cloud.

1. Set env N8N_BLOCK_ENV_ACCESS_IN_NODE=false (either in .env docker-compose, or the docker run command)
2. Restart N8N (docker compose down if using docker compose, or completely stop and destroy container if just plain docker)
3. Using a code node for test (or some other node), add return [{ json: { test: $env.YOUR_VAR }] and execute. OR
4. {{ $env.YOUR_VAR }} as an expression.

Expected behavior

When envs are unblocked, $env should become visible and act like setting any other value. It should not give a continuous warning.

Debug Info

Debug info

core

• n8nVersion: 2.18.5
• platform: docker (self-hosted)
• nodeJsVersion: 24.14.1
• nodeEnv: production
• database: sqlite
• executionMode: regular
• concurrency: -1
• license: enterprise (production)
• consumerId: 46deb8e2-f9ef-4a8b-a927-f1f278954bd3

storage

• success: all
• error: all
• progress: false
• manual: true
• binaryMode: filesystem

pruning

• enabled: true
• maxAge: 336 hours
• maxCount: 10000 executions

client

• userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (x11; linux x86_64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/147.0.0.0 safari/537.36
• isTouchDevice: false

Generated at: 2026-04-30T19:25:40.300Z

Operating System

Kubuntu 25.10

n8n Version

2.18.5

Node.js Version

24.13.0

Database

SQLite (default)

Execution mode

main (default)

Hosting

self hosted