---
type: source
title: "You're WASTING TIME Coding Your AI Agents"
description: "You do not need to code every AI agent from scratch: n8n lets you build powerful, self-hosted, no-code AI agent workflows with LangChain integration so you can reserve hand-coding for only the most complex agents."
youtube_id: VxTw9tzzlbc
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxTw9tzzlbc
slug: youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents
published: 2024-08-18
duration: "0:11:36"
recency_rank: 173
raw: "../raw/youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents.md"
tags: [no-code-agents, n8n, langchain, self-hosting, agent-deployment]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

Coding your own AI agents gives maximum control, but it costs a lot of time and debugging, and for simpler agents a no-code workflow tool is a better use of effort. Cole makes the case for n8n specifically over competitors like Zapier and Make.com for two reasons: it can be self-hosted (turning per-execution costs into a flat ~$6/month cloud VM bill on DigitalOcean, versus the ~$174/month he once paid Zapier), and it has direct LangChain integration so any workflow can embed a custom chain with any LLM, chat memory, tools, and structured output.

He demonstrates by recreating a basic version of his Asana task-management agent (from his AI Agents Master Class series) inside n8n with no code. A workflow is a graph of nodes, each either a trigger or an action. One workflow creates an Asana task from a dynamic name and due date, and a second workflow wraps an AI agent whose entry point is a chat input. The agent node hooks up an OpenAI model, a window buffer memory, and tools. One tool references the task-creation workflow by ID, with a description and structured input (name plus due date) that tell the agent how to call it, and a "compute date/time" node feeds the current date into the system message so the agent resolves relative dates like "this Friday."

He shows the agent working end-to-end, then exposes it two ways: as an API endpoint (called from Streamlit) and as an embeddable chat widget that n8n generates as ready-to-paste HTML, React, or Vue, with public access and optional authentication. Live, it creates a real "bake cookies by Friday" Asana task. His closing posture: use no-code for simpler agents so you can dedicate real coding time to the cutting-edge, complex agents that truly require it.

## Concepts covered

- [No-Code AI Agents](../concepts/no-code-agents.md)
- [Visual Workflow Builder](../concepts/visual-workflow-builder.md)
- [Local & Self-Hosted AI](../concepts/local-ai.md)
- [Tool Calling](../concepts/tool-use.md)
- [Memory Systems](../concepts/memory-systems.md)
- [Model Selection](../concepts/model-selection.md)
- [Agent Prompting Techniques](../concepts/agent-prompting.md)
- [Agent Deployment](../concepts/agent-deployment.md)

## Entities

- [n8n](../entities/tools/n8n.md)
- [LangChain](../entities/tools/langchain.md)
- [DigitalOcean](../entities/organizations/digital-ocean.md)
- [Zapier](../entities/tools/zapier.md)
- [Asana](../entities/tools/asana.md)
- [OpenAI](../entities/organizations/openai.md)
- [Streamlit](../entities/tools/streamlit.md)
- [Cole Medin](../entities/people/cole-medin.md)

## Key moments

- **[0:00:15]** Pitches n8n as a no-code way to build powerful AI agent workflows
- **[0:00:33]** Reason 1 n8n wins: self-hosting means $0 per-execution cost at any scale
- **[0:01:02]** Reason 2: direct LangChain integration for custom chains, any LLM, memory, tools
- **[0:02:06]** Self-hosting walkthrough: DigitalOcean droplet at ~$6/month
- **[0:03:18]** Explains n8n workflows as graphs of trigger + action nodes
- **[0:03:45]** The Asana task-creation workflow with dynamic name and due date
- **[0:06:00]** Building the AI agent node: OpenAI model, window buffer memory, tools
- **[0:06:54]** Tool = reference to the task workflow with description + structured input
- **[0:07:54]** Feeding current date into the system message for relative-date resolution
- **[0:08:59]** Exposing the agent as an API endpoint and as an embeddable chat widget
- **[0:10:18]** Live demo: agent creates a real "bake cookies by Friday" Asana task
- **[0:11:02]** Closing posture: no-code for simple agents, save coding for complex ones

## Transcript

[Raw transcript](../raw/youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents.md)
