# How to properly start a node-red docker with contrib nodes?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-properly-start-a-node-red-docker-with-contrib-nodes/59335>\
**Category:** General\
**Tags:** docker\
**Created:** [3 March 2022 22:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-properly-start-a-node-red-docker-with-contrib-nodes/59335 "2022-03-03T22:59:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lu4t](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/lu4t/32/32276_2.png) [@lu4t](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/lu4t)\
**Post date:** [3 March 2022 22:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-properly-start-a-node-red-docker-with-contrib-nodes/59335/1 "2022-03-03T22:59:18Z")

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Hi,  
here's what I want to achieve, I would appreciate your advice on how to do it the right way:

when starting a node-red container (from official minimal image), I am mapping a local folder to /data; I am saving (as a backup) settings.js, flows.json, flows\_cred.json and package.json  
Last week I had to recover my node-red instance, I used my last back up of these four files, and all was good. BUT, I had to manually install all the node-red-contrib-ŵhatever modules I had on package.json, to get all my flows working again (after restarting node-red).

My question is: is there a way to automate somehow this process?, (i.e. auto-install on startup the node-red-contrib modules, so that there's no need to re-start node-red runtime). I tried using node-red-admin, but I am not able to find the right command, as it seems it's pointing at the package.json file on usr/src/node-red (not the one on /userDir). I thought of using some sort of init container to achieve this, but maybe I am missing something that runs OOTB.

Thanks for your comments / advices.

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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:** [2 May 2022 22:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-properly-start-a-node-red-docker-with-contrib-nodes/59335/2 "2022-05-02T22:59:56Z")

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