n8n

tl;dr

A visual + code workflow editor where every step is on the canvas and traceable; ship AI agents and business processes without giving up the option to drop into JavaScript or Python when the UI runs out of road.

What it does

From n8n.io: “AI agents and workflows you can see and control. Build visually, go deep with code, connect to anything.” A workflow is a DAG of nodes; each node is an integration (Slack, Postgres, HTTP), a transform, an AI agent step, or inline code. Execution logs show prompt, response, and what happened next on every node.

From docs.n8n.io: n8n is a “fair-code licensed workflow automation tool that combines AI features with business process automation.”

Install (self-host)

Source: docs.n8n.io. One-liner for a quick local start; Docker Compose for anything serious.

# One-line setup (npx, local)
npx n8n

# Docker Compose
docker volume create n8n_data
docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
  docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

Then open http://localhost:5678. Production deploys run the same container behind a reverse proxy with a Postgres backend; full compose file at docs.n8n.io/hosting.

Connect n8n as an MCP server

n8n exposes its own MCP endpoint so Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex CLI can drive workflows as tools. From docs.n8n.io (MCP client examples):

# Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http n8n-mcp https://<your-host>/mcp-server/http

# OpenAI Codex CLI
codex mcp add n8n-mcp --url https://<your-host>/mcp-server/http

Claude Desktop uses a JSON block under mcpServers in claude_desktop_config.json — same URL pattern, full snippet at docs.n8n.io/connect/connect-to-n8n-mcp-server/mcp-client-examples.

Gotchas

From the fetched pages:

• Fair-code license, not OSI open source. Source is visible, you can self-host, but commercial use above the Sustainable Use License threshold needs a paid license. See docs.n8n.io/choose-n8n/faircode-license.
• No vendor lock-in on the model. Swap cloud or local LLMs in an AI agent node without rebuilding the workflow.
• Self-hosting is real Docker. Air-gapped and on-prem are first-class; managed cloud is the alternative if you don’t want to run it.
• Secrets are stored encrypted. SSO/SAML and LDAP exist on Enterprise; RBAC + audit log streaming to your SIEM are the governance knobs.
• Templates live at n8n.io/workflows. The fetched home page links 10k+ templates — treat them as starting points, not production copy-paste.

Related

• Cursor — composes multi-step agent loops; n8n orchestrates multi-system workflows.
• Claude Code — connects to n8n’s MCP server above for tool use from the terminal.
• ChatGPT — runs as an OpenAI node inside n8n workflows alongside other systems.