# YAML Config Files

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [9 July 2025 20:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060 "2025-07-09T20:45:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carter142](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@carter142](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/carter142)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 20:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/1 "2025-07-09T20:45:10Z")

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Very new to Node-Red, I've been given a flow to import which is accompanied by a config.yaml file. I've been instructed to ensure node-red can access this file but cannot find any clear instructions on how to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated

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**Author:** ![marcus-j-davies](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/marcus-j-davies/32/103435_2.png) [@marcus-j-davies](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/marcus-j-davies)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 21:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/2 "2025-07-09T21:13:19Z")

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Welcome to the forums @carter142

Sorry, but its to vague to provide an answer currently  
How is this file being loaded?

- By a 3rd Party Installed Node?
- Via the file read node?

We need to understand how this file is utilised in Node RED and by what component within it.

If it helps, the process user running Node RED will need read access to that file  
(wherever it is stored)

- This is managed by your OS file permission tooling

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 21:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/3 "2025-07-09T21:16:05Z")

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> [@carter142](#):
>
> config.yaml

You can use the YAML node after using a file read node to covert to JSON.

However, as Marcus says, it is a bit hard to know exactly what you might be wanting to do with the data.

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**Author:** ![carter142](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@carter142](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/carter142)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 21:41 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/4 "2025-07-09T21:41:18Z")

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Forgive me if I don't use the right terms,

It looks like the existing project does this. It uses a read node to access the config file, then directly after uses a YAML node.

Is this read node where the config file should be accessed from?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 21:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/5 "2025-07-09T21:44:33Z")

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Yes, the file read node is given a file location and name to read, that grabs the content into Node-RED. The content is passed in the output msg and fed into the YAML node to convert it to JSON so that you can then work with the data.

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**Author:** ![marcus-j-davies](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/marcus-j-davies/32/103435_2.png) [@marcus-j-davies](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/marcus-j-davies)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 21:48 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/6 "2025-07-09T21:48:08Z")

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Further more….

You can update the location that the read node is trying to read from.

So place it somewhere that works for you (taking into considering security / ACL’s on the file system )

And of course update the read node it’s self to update the location that you stored this file to

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**Author:** ![carter142](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@carter142](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/carter142)\
**Post date:** [9 July 2025 22:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/7 "2025-07-09T22:13:15Z")

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Thanks to you both for the help! I definitely understand the function more after your directions 🙂

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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:** [23 July 2025 22:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/yaml-config-files/98060/8 "2025-07-23T22:13:19Z")

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