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Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

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Re: Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

#11
post #7
post #5

How does it deal with loops? I’ve often see workflow builders struggle at that?

and specifically nested loops. if you're spinning up full runtime copies for each loop, you're gonna have a hard time

at the moment, we don't support 'loops in loops' on the client-side, but not for any other reason asides from it becoming confusing for users. since we don't actually make copies for each loop, it wouldn't be a performance issue.

Re: Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

#16
post #14

I wonder how the free open-source in this stacks up to the free open-source in n8n.

n8n uses a "Sustainable Use License"—source available, but not OSI-approved open source. This means you can only use it for internal business purposes or non-commercial use. Sim is Apache 2.0.

Re: Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

#17

Looks interesting. The 12GB minimum RAM requirements seem quite steep though. Why so much?

its a conservative estimate, but primarily because there's a socket server that runs alongside the main container, so you never have to manually save because changes are debounced, broadcasted to any other users on the canvas, and sent to the socket server which persists it to the DB

Re: Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

#18
So here is a case that I wanted to implement in n8n a few years ago and it required quite heavy JS blocks:

- I want to check some input - pick one of your 138 blocks

- I want to extract a list of items from that input

- I want to check which items did I encounter before - Do something for the items that have not been encountered before; bonus point for detecting updated and deleted items

- Rinse and repeat

It could be a row added to a CSV file, a new file dropped into a Nextcloud folder, a list of issues pulled from a repo, or an RSS feed (Yahoo! Pipes, what a sweet memory).

How good is the support for such a case in Sim? And did it get better in n8n?

Re: Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

#19

So here is a case that I wanted to implement in n8n a few years ago and it required quite heavy JS blocks: - I want to check some input - pick one of your 138 blocks - I want to extract a list of items from that input - I want to check which items did I encounter before - Do something for the items that have not been encountered before; bonus point for detecting updated and deleted items - Rinse and repeat It could b…

But does that require AI agents? Well, maybe the extraction step, if it's not CSV but a general-case web page.

Re: Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative

#20

What does “n8n” stand for? I’m assuming it’s a shortening of a longer word, like k8s.

I've been pronouncing it as "nanites" in my head since the first time I've seen it. Dunno why and now I feel just a tiny silly, though I still prefer my pronunciation.

Needless to say I never had to actually say "n8n".

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