In a blog post published on the n8n blog on August 12, 2026, company founder Jan Oberhauser introduced the company’s new "Culture/Code." Oberhauser opens his remarks with a practical metaphor from the world of washing dishes—one that he notes is also entirely literal. The company recently launched its updated company values within the "Culture/Code" during its global, in-person ("IRL") all-company offsite held in Berlin this past April, the very city where Oberhauser founded n8n in 2019. Alongside ideas about building infrastructure for a new era of work and the importance of operating with integrity, the code features a line about doing the dishes: “When something needs doing, you do it - from the strategic call to the dish in the sink.” Oberhauser notes that some workflows are simply not automated, but rather run by yourself. This line is his favorite in the entire code, as it touches on the essence of what n8n does and the way to achieve its goals.
Why Refresh the Company Values Now?
According to Oberhauser, the most obvious reason for this refresh is the company's rapid growth rate, which outpaces most other companies, with the project now ranked among the top 30 projects of all time on GitHub. This rapid pace serves as a genuine test of an organizational culture's ability to flex and absorb change. Culture does not transmit automatically. Every month, new employees join the company who did not experience it when it was small enough for the culture to be felt rather than explained—a period when a Slack thread or a decision made in front of everyone naturally set the tone. At the company’s current size, things no longer work that way, nor are they supposed to.
The Founder's Distance from the Day-to-Day and Global Expansion
The second, less comfortable reason for the values refresh relates to Oberhauser himself. As a company scales, a founder inevitably becomes more removed from day-to-day contact, which previously served as the primary channel for transmitting the vision and values. Oberhauser notes that while he still loves meeting every new hire, he has less time to dedicate to each of them than in the past, and fewer ongoing daily interactions and mutual discussions as was previously common. He cannot be present in every room where a difficult decision is made. Furthermore, as the company builds out its global team and expands its operations in the United States—a market characterized by its own distinct norms, pressures, and pace—the risk of cultural drift or disconnect is a challenge that company leadership could not ignore.
Central Goal: Generational Impact and Longevity
Scaling up is not n8n’s primary objective; rather, the focus is on impact and longevity. The aspiration is for n8n to be a generational company—one that will still exist, remain trusted, and continue building and developing twenty, thirty, or more years from now. For this to happen, the organizational culture must outlast the people who built it, and it is vital that the culture is understood, inherited, and owned by everyone who joins the company in the future.
The Challenge of Remote-First as a Guiding Principle
Building a coherent and unified culture across different time zones, languages, and working styles, without the ambient social glue of a single shared office (although the company does maintain local hubs in certain major cities), requires a higher level of intentionality than most companies are willing to admit. The informal calibration that occurs when people are in close physical proximity—such as overhearing a decision spoken in a room, reading the room, understanding how a leader handles a specific situation under pressure, or recognizing how central the community is to decision-making—does not exist by default at n8n. The company must create this deliberately, and the "Culture/Code" is part of the way to do so. Oberhauser emphasizes that this is not a substitute for genuine human connection, but it is certainly useful as a shared reference point to help overcome geographical barriers and daylight savings time differences.
Moving from Implicit to Written Values
The values of n8n have always been present in the decisions made by the company over the years: from turning down investors due to ethical concerns, to parting ways with talented individuals who were not a cultural fit, to treating free users exactly the same as paying customers. However, the company recognizes that it can no longer rely on osmosis to spontaneously spread these values, leading to the decision to officially document them in writing.
The "We Are Welcoming" Value and the Global Community
Another favorite section of Oberhauser's in the new "Culture/Code" is the value "We are welcoming." This value touches on the unique nature of n8n as a genuinely global community. Builders using n8n can be found on almost every continent. While the company began in Europe, its leading and largest community hub was actually in Brazil for a long time. According to the code, the only entry requirement is having a dream and the drive to build something great. This diversity is especially important because n8n is a product designed for everyone: solo builders, global enterprises, professional developers, and individuals just beginning to learn how to code, as well as teams operating across dozens of countries and industries. If the people building n8n do not reflect the broad diversity of its community, the company risks building a much narrower product with significantly less impact than it is capable of generating.
The Community as Part of the Working Method and a Promise for the Future
n8n has always been more than just a group of people who share the same email domain extension. The community of contributors, users, template builders, and forum regulars is an integral part of how the company operates and a key source of its future success. The new "Culture/Code" represents a promise to them as well: it defines how company representatives participate in forums, how they respond when something breaks, and how they credit the people building alongside them. The very values that guide internal relationships among employees must also dictate how the company treats those building alongside it in the community. Anything less would be considered "corporate theatre," and Oberhauser makes it clear that this is not n8n’s style.
Practical Application and Implementation of the Culture Code
The "Culture/Code" is structured in two parts, reflecting the understanding that a company’s culture consists of two layers: the values the company stands for, and the practical behaviors that demonstrate how those values are lived every day. The roll-out phase is now beginning. The company is integrating the code across all areas of its operations—from recruitment and hiring processes to how feedback is delivered. The company will assess whether its people are living by these values and will ask employees to challenge leadership and their peers whenever they notice a departure from them.
In closing, Oberhauser returns to the kitchen sink metaphor, explaining that the line about the dishes is not actually about washing dishes at all, but rather about the discipline of noticing. It is not just about having the humility to roll up one's sleeves, but the naturalness of doing so. It represents a sense of community that prompts an employee to invest effort into solving a problem that may not be their fault, yet they view it as a shared responsibility—not because anyone is tracking it, but because leaving it for someone else simply does not align with who they are. The Culture/Code is a mirror reflecting who the company is today, but also a map that helps guide where it is heading and how they will get there together. The only thing Oberhauser makes clear he does not want to see is a dish left in the sink.