Isnt this just workflow automation thats been around for decades ?
whats ai about it ?
N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
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Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#12N8N is great. Been self-hosting for years.
Can you provide a few examples for what you use it for privately?
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#13Can someone talk about their experience using n8n? I’ve seen it in passing a lot lately, but I wonder what some good successful use cases are
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#14Isnt this just workflow automation thats been around for decades ? whats ai about it ?
There are lots of AI nodes which are both very convenient and are great for learning how all of this works. Vector storage integrations etc. I'm not affiliated.
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#15Simple to self host and use, can recommend. Can't say I'm a fan of the €55M financing round they took though. I mean, congratulations to them, but the growth they'll need to satisfy those investors is so very likely to lead to chasing numbers and enshittifying the product down the line.
I'm curious, because neither of us knows their financial situation or needs and ambitions. What would you suggest they do?
Not take as much Money. You can get by with way less, and don’t have to sell as many of your Horcruxes to the VCs.
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#16If you’re looking for an Open Source alternative, give Windmill a try.
Having some experience with both, I think they are quite different. N8n looks quite polished and seems primarily concerned about connecting pre-made blocks. There are custom code blocks (JS and Python only, with limited ability to import libraries), but it’s not something you’d use by default. I thinks it great for less-technical users when compared to windmill.
Windmill OTOH supports a bunch of programming languages for steps (Go, Rust, Python, TS, etc.) and seems to have a much more “code first” approach. Reusable blocks are more like code templates compared to n8n.
Hard to say which is better. I really like the ability in windmill to just write code for each step and it comes across more powerful, but it feels less polished and intuitive when compared to n8n.
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#17A while back I used it to glue together a bunch of APIs to make a geofence on top of a WiFi location service my company offers. Super easy to prototype external computation without something like severless/lambda (which would be the likely path for production)
https://blog.golioth.io/a-2-geofence-wi-fi-location-here-com...
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#18Can someone talk about their experience using n8n? I’ve seen it in passing a lot lately, but I wonder what some good successful use cases are
It is great to make chatbots in my opinion. Personal automations, AI, etc. I have friends who use it to prototype products and it works using n8n as backend for users. I mostly don't do this, only prototypes that only I can access. It has pros and cons vs coding, and you probably have to make something using n8n to see if it works for you.
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#19How is the name pronounced? Like nate-n, which is a play on Nathan? Aside from that, I've been thinking about no/low-code solutions for educational purposes. I'm an incoming professor of a university and most my students have little background in CS or related fields. The university insists on using tools like Alteryx but I want to see if free open-source solutions exist (because that way, students can use the tools…
From their GitHub:
“ What does n8n mean?
Short answer: It means "nodemation" and is pronounced as n-eight-n.
Long answer: "I get that question quite often (more often than I expected) so I decided it is probably best to answer it here. While looking for a good name for the project with a free domain I realized very quickly that all the good ones I could think of were already taken. So, in the end, I chose nodemation. 'node-' in the sense that it uses a Node-View and that it uses Node.js and '-mation' for 'automation' which is what the project is supposed to help with. However, I did not like how long the name was and I could not imagine writing something that long every time in the CLI. That is when I then ended up on 'n8n'." - Jan Oberhauser, Founder and CEO, n8n.io”
Re: N8n – Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teams
#20A while back I used it to glue together a bunch of APIs to make a geofence on top of a WiFi location service my company offers. Super easy to prototype external computation without something like severless/lambda (which would be the likely path for production) https://blog.golioth.io/a-2-geofence-wi-fi-location-here-com...
Thanks for sharing, Chris! In case it's helpful to other readers, the linked article outlines combining several tools together, including N8n and how it fit into the picture. Decent article, although a bit shallow on details.