# How start node-red without any flows running?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [6 March 2025 05:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819 "2025-03-06T05:37:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jibun-no-Kage](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/jibun-no-kage/32/99316_2.png) [@Jibun-no-Kage](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Jibun-no-Kage)\
**Post date:** [6 March 2025 05:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819/1 "2025-03-06T05:37:59Z")

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How start node-red without any flows running? Have a module that is generating uncaught exception, and it keeps crashing node-red. The issue is module has a bad parameter setting, but since the flow keeps running when node-red runs... caught in an endless loop!

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**Author:** ![xx\_Nexus\_xx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/54ee81/32.png) [@xx\_Nexus\_xx](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/xx_Nexus_xx)\
**Post date:** [6 March 2025 06:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819/2 "2025-03-06T06:10:08Z")

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you can start node red in SAFE-Mode. This will start node-red but not start the flows

depending on your setup it can be as easy as

node-red --safe

please read the documentation

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**Author:** ![Jibun-no-Kage](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/jibun-no-kage/32/99316_2.png) [@Jibun-no-Kage](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Jibun-no-Kage)\
**Post date:** [6 March 2025 06:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819/3 "2025-03-06T06:17:15Z")

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Ah... I tried node-red --no-flows... but that did not work, completely forgot about --safe. Thx.

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**Author:** ![chrisn-au](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/chrisn-au/32/25504_2.png) [@chrisn-au](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/chrisn-au)\
**Post date:** [6 March 2025 10:06 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819/4 "2025-03-06T10:06:12Z")

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Just for reference for those using docker (I had this problem today ) set the environment variable

NODE\_RED\_ENABLE\_SAFE\_MODE=true

(And change it back to false for normal ops)

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [20 March 2025 10:06 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-start-node-red-without-any-flows-running/95819/5 "2025-03-20T10:06:44Z")

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