Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf • Hacker News Board

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#11

Post by esquire_900 » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

This, as well as related projects like n8n & node-red, is a very cool project. I always wonder what people use it for in real life though. It seems a lot of trouble (setting up, learning curve, maintaining) for an action that usually takes a couple of seconds, like checking the weather or opening twitter.

Does anybody have useful workflows going on?

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#12

Post by janober » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

rvz wrote: post #4

For those using expensive/advanced connectors like Zapier, Tray.io, etc. I find that https://n8n.io serves as a far welcoming open-source alternative that is worth looking at.

Thanks a lot rvz for throwing it in the mix. I am the creator of n8n so just wanted to mention that it is not "OSI approved open-source" as the commons clause got attached. More information about that in the FAQ https://docs.n8n.io/#/faq?id=license

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#13

Post by howmayiannoyyou » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

Zapier has exponentially more integrations than this or anything else, but is surprisingly difficult to use, and more so since they updated their UI. Editing Zaps is pure torture because refresh is so difficult. Exception handling is pure pain. In most instances the breadth of API calls is so narrow, and so rarely updated by vendors that you end up switching to a custom integration. I've also noticed vendors rapidly expanding their native integrations, sidestepping the need for a request broker.

The "retail" integration space remains underserved and if one of the enterprise players decided to go down-market with a better UI and deeper integrations - they'd mop the floor clean in 18 months.

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#14

Post by PopeDotNinja » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

PatrolX wrote: post #5

Not just an alternative though. - Self-hosted - Unlimited and FREE vs $699 / month - Create your own agents / integrations - Process data through shell scripts or JavaScript - Better filtering - Liquid templating - Completely private I save thousands of dollars by using Huginn. It's incredibly powerful and quite frankly I don't trust Zapier with my data and visibility of what I'm doing because there are commercial im…

> I save thousands of dollars by using Huginn.

Does that take into account the overhead of operating Huginn?

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#15

Post by pixiemaster » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

jaequery wrote: post #9

This looks worth checking out but I’d love to see a Lambda version of it

Yes, that would be the killer feature

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#16

Post by davidgf » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

PatrolX wrote: post #7

rvz wrote: post #4

For those using expensive/advanced connectors like Zapier, Tray.io, etc. I find that https://n8n.io serves as a far welcoming open-source alternative that is worth looking at.

Nowhere near as flexible and powerful as Huginn.

Please elaborate. I'm not questioning what you say is true, but I'm interested in a tool like this one and would love to know more before choosing one or another.

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#17

Post by ikeboy » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:31 PM UTC

I don't see a list of all supported agents or a way to search.

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#18

Post by rogerkirkness » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:31 PM UTC

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #13

Zapier has exponentially more integrations than this or anything else, but is surprisingly difficult to use, and more so since they updated their UI. Editing Zaps is pure torture because refresh is so difficult. Exception handling is pure pain. In most instances the breadth of API calls is so narrow, and so rarely updated by vendors that you end up switching to a custom integration. I've also noticed vendors rapidly…

We tend to agree re: retail integration, assuming you mean among retailers as opposed to message brokering.

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#19

Post by janober » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:32 PM UTC

PatrolX wrote: post #7

rvz wrote: post #4

For those using expensive/advanced connectors like Zapier, Tray.io, etc. I find that https://n8n.io serves as a far welcoming open-source alternative that is worth looking at.

Nowhere near as flexible and powerful as Huginn.

Do not have that much experience with Huginn but you are probably right. As n8n is new and Huginn is already around for many years it would be surprising if they would be equal in every way. Anyway, I am quite sure that most that can be done with Huginn can with a limited amount of work also be done in n8n as creating new nodes is very simple. (I am the creator of n8n)

Re: Huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf

#20

Post by soared » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

I would not market this as an alternative to Zapier since it goes after a different market. The type of people who use Zapier will see a link to github.com and not even consider it.

I think this should be positioned more like "A high powered Zapier for technical users" or something similar.