---
type: entity
subtype: tool
title: "n8n"
description: "A no-code AI automation platform for building agents and workflows that integrate with 500+ applications."
resource: "https://n8n.io"
tags: [no-code, ai-agents, automation]
videos: [everything-you-thought-about-building-ai-agents-is-wrong, the-only-ai-tech-stack-you-need-in-2026, learn-90-of-building-ai-agents-in-30-minutes, should-i-build-my-ai-agents-with-n8n-or-python, docker-just-made-using-mcp-servers-100x-easier-one-click-installs, knowledge-graphs-in-n8n-are-finally-here, your-ultimate-n8n-rag-ai-agent-template-just-got-a-massive-upgrade, my-top-20-lessons-from-building-100s-of-ai-agents-super-actionable, why-is-everyone-missing-this-with-ai-agents-memory-tools-that-scale, the-ultimate-guide-to-local-ai-and-ai-agents-the-future-is-here, all-the-best-rag-strategies-in-one-mcp-for-ai-coding-assistants, how-id-learn-ai-agents-fast-if-i-had-to-start-over-full-roadmap, google-anthropic-and-openais-guides-to-ai-agents-all-in-18-minutes, give-me-28-minutes-and-ill-completely-change-the-way-you-build-ai-agents, the-easiest-possible-strategy-for-accurate-rag-step-by-step-guide, i-built-the-ultimate-rag-mcp-server-for-ai-coding-better-than-context7, if-youre-serious-about-building-ai-agents-this-is-your-secret-weapon, the-ultimate-guide-to-building-your-own-mcp-servers-free-template, build-a-chatgpt-style-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agents-in-minutes, claude-mcp-has-changed-ai-forever-heres-what-you-need-to-know, create-your-own-private-local-ai-cloud-stack-in-under-20-minutes, the-ultimate-n8n-rag-ai-agent-template-local-ai-edition, i-built-the-ultimate-n8n-rag-ai-agent-template, are-you-building-real-ai-agents-or-just-using-llms, run-supabase-100-locally-for-your-ai-agents, n8n-crawl4ai-scrape-any-website-in-minutes-with-no-code, deepseek-r1-just-revolutionized-ai-forever, the-glow-up-every-ai-agent-needs, pydantic-ai-deepseek-v3-the-best-ai-agent-combo, how-to-dominate-with-ai-in-2025, im-hosting-a-huge-ai-hackathon-competition, revealing-my-complete-ai-agent-blueprint, i-created-the-best-ai-agent-platform-in-just-2-months, flowise-n8n-the-best-no-code-local-ai-agent-combo, 10-n8n-tips-in-10-minutes-to-10x-your-ai-automations, turn-any-ai-agent-into-a-live-person-voice-chat-setup-in-minutes, the-king-of-no-code-ai-agent-builders, how-to-use-boltnew-for-free-with-local-llms-and-no-rate-limits, use-open-webui-with-your-n8n-ai-agents-voice-chat-included, openais-swarm-a-game-changer-for-ai-agents, get-qualified-leads-while-you-sleep-with-ai, effortless-rag-in-n8n-use-all-your-files-pdfs-excel-and-more, deploy-any-ai-app-to-the-cloud-fast, build-a-full-stack-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agent-in-20-minutes, i-built-a-full-rag-ai-agent-with-no-code-in-4-minutes-with-vectorshift, the-hard-truth-about-hosting-your-own-llms, dont-sleep-on-the-ultimate-ai-agent-combo-n8n-langchain-python, run-all-your-ai-locally-in-minutes-llms-rag-and-more, local-vs-cloud-llmsrag-lets-finally-end-this-debate, v0-claude-a-game-changer-for-building-ai-apps, this-rag-ai-agent-with-n8n-supabase-is-the-real-deal, no-code-rag-agents-you-have-to-check-out-n8n-langchain, youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents, build-a-chatbot-for-your-website-in-4-minutes-no-code]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# n8n

n8n is Cole's favorite no-code AI automation platform, a visual, node-based canvas for building agents and workflows that wire an LLM together with hundreds of external services. As he puts it, "n8n is my favorite no code AI automation tool where you can basically build any AI agent you want and integrate it really easily with more than 500 different applications." It is self-hostable, cost-effective (a self-hosted alternative to Make.com and Zapier), and integrates directly with the [LangChain](./langchain.md) library through a code node, which is why it became "the most popular topic" on his channel.

Cole's dominant use of n8n is [rapid prototyping](../../concepts/rapid-prototyping.md): "I'll use it as a tool to quickly prototype ideas, validate the tools I'm giving my agents and system prompts," then export the workflow as JSON and rebuild the production agent in code with [Pydantic AI](./pydantic-ai.md). Its visual sequencing makes it the ideal teaching surface for showing the difference between a scripted workflow and a true agent. He builds full [RAG](../../concepts/rag.md) agents on it, most often paired with [Supabase](./supabase.md) as the vector store for its [embeddings](../../concepts/vector-embeddings.md), and leans on its baked-in short-term [memory](../../concepts/memory-systems.md) nodes. n8n also anchors his [local AI](../../concepts/local-ai.md) stack: the n8n-team "self-hosted AI starter kit" ships Ollama, Qdrant, Postgres, and n8n together, and it connects to community [MCP](../../concepts/mcp.md) nodes (SSE-only on the client side) and to Docker-hosted tools via `host.docker.internal`.

He is candid about its limits. n8n has no single node to extract text from any file type, there is no native Langfuse integration (you must hardcode auth keys in a code node), credentials get baked into individual nodes, and the built-in chat UI is weak, so he pairs it with Open WebUI or custom [ChatGPT-style frontends](../../concepts/chat-interfaces.md). Compared with pure Python, n8n has "a steeper learning curve... especially when building your AI agents," and complex looping or multi-select logic is hard to express. On scaling and [deployment](../../concepts/agent-deployment.md), though, "for a no-code platform, N8N scales extremely well because of something called Queue mode," and a workflow exposed as a webhook becomes a clean agent [API endpoint](../../concepts/agent-as-api-endpoint.md).

## Realizes

- [No-Code AI Agents](../../concepts/no-code-agents.md) - Building functional AI agents by wiring nodes on a visual canvas instead of writing code, trading some control for much faster build and debug time.
- [Workflow as a Tool](../../concepts/workflow-as-a-tool.md) - Packaging an arbitrary multi-step automation workflow as a single callable agent tool, so the agent inherits the automation platform's hundreds of integrations as capabilities.
- [Rapid Prototyping](../../concepts/rapid-prototyping.md) - Building a fast proof of concept with managed services first, then hardening only what proves out, instead of over-engineering up front.

## Contrasts with

- [Flowise](./flowise.md) - Low-code LLM app / agent builder included and exposed in the stack.
- [Voiceflow](./voiceflow.md) - A conversational-AI builder cited as a comparable node-based workflow platform.
- [Vector Shift](./vector-shift.md) - A visual AI-workflow builder cited as a comparable node-based platform.
- [Make.com](./make.md) - No-code integration and automation platform, alongside Zapier, that a no-code agent can bridge to for services it doesn't natively integrate.
- [Bubble](./bubble.md) - Popular no-code app builder Cole criticizes for 'workload unit' usage-based pricing that makes AI app costs unpredictable and ruinous at scale.
- [Pydantic AI](./pydantic-ai.md) - Cole's framework for the individual agents, structured around three parts: dependencies, the agent definition, and tools.

## Works with

- [LangChain](./langchain.md) - The framework used in prior masterclass videos to build the Asana agent; its message objects and invoke/stream methods underpin the chatbot logic.
- [Supabase](./supabase.md) - A single platform providing Postgres for scalable chat memory plus the pgvector store for RAG embeddings, recommended over in-memory alternatives.
- [Ollama](./ollama.md) - Local LLM runtime; works with a locally-run bolt.diy but can't be reached by a self-hosted (remote) instance.
- [n8n Self-Hosted AI Starter Kit](./n8n-self-hosted-ai-starter-kit.md) - n8n's official Docker Compose package bundling Ollama, Qdrant, Postgres, and n8n so a fully local AI stack (LLMs, vector DB, SQL DB, orchestration) starts with one command.
- [MCP](../../concepts/mcp.md) - An open protocol for packaging tools, data, and RAG capabilities as servers that any AI coding assistant or agent can connect to and call with a standard interface.

## Related

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)](../../concepts/rag.md) - Grounding an LLM's answers by retrieving relevant documents from an external knowledge base and injecting them into the prompt at query time.
- [Memory Systems](../../concepts/memory-systems.md) - Giving agents durable short- and long-term memory so conversations, user context, and facts persist across sessions and users.
- [Local & Self-Hosted AI](../../concepts/local-ai.md) - Running open-weight models on your own hardware or cloud for privacy, cost control, and independence from API providers.
- [Model Selection](../../concepts/model-selection.md) - Choosing the right LLM per task by trading off quality, speed, and cost, often routing easy requests to cheap models and hard ones to expensive models.
- [Agent Deployment](../../concepts/agent-deployment.md) - Getting agents to production, containerizing, networking, reverse-proxying, and choosing a provider-agnostic, cost-predictable host.
- [Vector Embeddings](../../concepts/vector-embeddings.md) - Numeric representations of text that enable semantic similarity search, stored and managed in a vector database for retrieval.
- [Chat Interfaces](../../concepts/chat-interfaces.md) - Wrapping agents in chat surfaces (websites, DMs, platforms) with adapters, a shared message format, and durable history.
- [Agent as an API Endpoint](../../concepts/agent-as-api-endpoint.md) - Wrapping an AI agent in a web API (typically FastAPI) turns it from a terminal-bound script into a deployable, scalable service any frontend, SaaS, or client can call remotely.
- [The Seven Node Blueprint](../../concepts/seven-node-blueprint.md) - Cole's mental model that decomposes any AI agent into seven reusable node types (LLM, tool, control, memory, guardrail, fallback, user input) you build individually and combine like Lego bricks.
- [Production-Ready RAG](../../concepts/production-ready-rag.md) - Building RAG that survives a growing knowledge base, updated documents, and unexpected user questions, unlike toy 'chat with your PDF' demos.
- [Delete-Before-Insert Re-Ingestion](../../concepts/delete-before-insert-reingestion.md) - Because most vector stores insert rather than upsert, you must delete a document's existing chunks (matched by file ID metadata) before re-inserting an updated version, or stale chunks linger forever.

## Sources

- [Everything You Thought About Building AI Agents is Wrong](../../sources/everything-you-thought-about-building-ai-agents-is-wrong.md)
- [The ONLY AI Tech Stack You Need in 2026](../../sources/the-only-ai-tech-stack-you-need-in-2026.md) - "[0:05:44] N8N for me is where it's at... I'll use it as a tool to quickly prototype ideas, validate the tools I'm giving my agents and system prompts"
- [Learn 90% of Building AI Agents in 30 Minutes](../../sources/learn-90-of-building-ai-agents-in-30-minutes.md)
- [Should I Build My AI Agents with n8n or Python?](../../sources/should-i-build-my-ai-agents-with-n8n-or-python.md) - "[0:04:48] for a no-code platform, n8n scales extremely well because of something called Q mode"
- [Docker Just Made Using MCP Servers 100x Easier (One Click Installs!)](../../sources/docker-just-made-using-mcp-servers-100x-easier-one-click-installs.md)
- [Knowledge Graphs in n8n are FINALLY Here!](../../sources/knowledge-graphs-in-n8n-are-finally-here.md)
- [Your ULTIMATE n8n RAG AI Agent Template just got a Massive Upgrade](../../sources/your-ultimate-n8n-rag-ai-agent-template-just-got-a-massive-upgrade.md)
- [My Top 20 Lessons from Building 100s of AI Agents (Super Actionable)](../../sources/my-top-20-lessons-from-building-100s-of-ai-agents-super-actionable.md)
- [Why is Everyone Missing This with AI Agents?! (Memory + Tools that Scale)](../../sources/why-is-everyone-missing-this-with-ai-agents-memory-tools-that-scale.md)
- [The Ultimate Guide to Local AI and AI Agents (The Future is Here)](../../sources/the-ultimate-guide-to-local-ai-and-ai-agents-the-future-is-here.md)
- [All the BEST RAG Strategies in ONE MCP for AI Coding Assistants](../../sources/all-the-best-rag-strategies-in-one-mcp-for-ai-coding-assistants.md)
- [How I'd Learn AI Agents FAST if I Had to Start Over (Full Roadmap)](../../sources/how-id-learn-ai-agents-fast-if-i-had-to-start-over-full-roadmap.md)
- [Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI's Guides to AI Agents ALL in 18 Minutes](../../sources/google-anthropic-and-openais-guides-to-ai-agents-all-in-18-minutes.md)
- [Give Me 28 Minutes and I'll Completely Change the Way You Build AI Agents](../../sources/give-me-28-minutes-and-ill-completely-change-the-way-you-build-ai-agents.md)
- [The EASIEST Possible Strategy for Accurate RAG (Step by Step Guide)](../../sources/the-easiest-possible-strategy-for-accurate-rag-step-by-step-guide.md)
- [I Built the Ultimate RAG MCP Server for AI Coding (Better than Context7)](../../sources/i-built-the-ultimate-rag-mcp-server-for-ai-coding-better-than-context7.md)
- [If You're Serious About Building AI Agents, This is Your Secret Weapon](../../sources/if-youre-serious-about-building-ai-agents-this-is-your-secret-weapon.md) - "[0:26:42] the biggest downside to all this is that you have to hardcode your Langfuse authentication keys in the code node in n8n. So it's really not an ideal solution."
- [The ULTIMATE Guide to Building Your Own MCP Servers (Free Template)](../../sources/the-ultimate-guide-to-building-your-own-mcp-servers-free-template.md)
- [Build a ChatGPT Style App for Your n8n AI Agents in MINUTES](../../sources/build-a-chatgpt-style-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agents-in-minutes.md) - "[0:00:47] I absolutely love n8n. In my mind, it is the best no-code tool for building automations and AI agents. But clearly for their UI, there could be something much much better."
- [Claude MCP has Changed AI Forever - Here's What You NEED to Know](../../sources/claude-mcp-has-changed-ai-forever-heres-what-you-need-to-know.md)
- [Create Your Own Private Local AI Cloud Stack in Under 20 Minutes](../../sources/create-your-own-private-local-ai-cloud-stack-in-under-20-minutes.md)
- [The ULTIMATE n8n RAG AI Agent Template - Local AI Edition](../../sources/the-ultimate-n8n-rag-ai-agent-template-local-ai-edition.md)
- [I Built the ULTIMATE n8n RAG AI Agent Template](../../sources/i-built-the-ultimate-n8n-rag-ai-agent-template.md)
- [Are You Building REAL AI Agents or Just Using LLMs?](../../sources/are-you-building-real-ai-agents-or-just-using-llms.md)
- [Run Supabase 100% LOCALLY for Your AI Agents](../../sources/run-supabase-100-locally-for-your-ai-agents.md)
- [n8n + Crawl4AI - Scrape ANY Website in Minutes with NO Code](../../sources/n8n-crawl4ai-scrape-any-website-in-minutes-with-no-code.md)
- [DeepSeek R1 Just Revolutionized AI Forever](../../sources/deepseek-r1-just-revolutionized-ai-forever.md)
- [The GLOW-UP Every AI Agent Needs](../../sources/the-glow-up-every-ai-agent-needs.md)
- [Pydantic AI + DeepSeek V3 - The BEST AI Agent Combo](../../sources/pydantic-ai-deepseek-v3-the-best-ai-agent-combo.md)
- [How to DOMINATE with AI in 2025](../../sources/how-to-dominate-with-ai-in-2025.md)
- [I'm Hosting a HUGE AI Hackathon Competition](../../sources/im-hosting-a-huge-ai-hackathon-competition.md)
- [Revealing my COMPLETE AI Agent Blueprint](../../sources/revealing-my-complete-ai-agent-blueprint.md)
- [I Created the BEST AI Agent Platform in Just 2 MONTHS!](../../sources/i-created-the-best-ai-agent-platform-in-just-2-months.md)
- [Flowise + n8n - The BEST No Code + Local AI Agent Combo](../../sources/flowise-n8n-the-best-no-code-local-ai-agent-combo.md) - "[0:01:39] n8n is still my favorite no code AI automation platform especially because of how well it integrates with hundreds of applications"
- [10 n8n Tips in 10 Minutes to 10x Your AI Automations](../../sources/10-n8n-tips-in-10-minutes-to-10x-your-ai-automations.md) - "[0:00:00] n8n is my favorite no code AI automation tool where you can basically build any AI agent you want and integrate it really easily with more than 500 different applications"
- [Turn ANY AI Agent into a Live Person - Voice Chat Setup in Minutes](../../sources/turn-any-ai-agent-into-a-live-person-voice-chat-setup-in-minutes.md)
- [The KING of No Code AI Agent Builders?!](../../sources/the-king-of-no-code-ai-agent-builders.md)
- [How to Use Bolt.new for FREE with Local LLMs (And NO Rate Limits)](../../sources/how-to-use-boltnew-for-free-with-local-llms-and-no-rate-limits.md)
- [Use Open WebUI with Your N8N AI Agents - Voice Chat Included!](../../sources/use-open-webui-with-your-n8n-ai-agents-voice-chat-included.md)
- [OpenAI's Swarm - a GAME CHANGER for AI Agents](../../sources/openais-swarm-a-game-changer-for-ai-agents.md)
- [Get Qualified Leads While you Sleep with AI](../../sources/get-qualified-leads-while-you-sleep-with-ai.md)
- [Effortless RAG in n8n - Use ALL Your Files (PDFs, Excel, and More)](../../sources/effortless-rag-in-n8n-use-all-your-files-pdfs-excel-and-more.md) - "[0:00:52] n8n unfortunately does not provide a single node that you can use to extract text from any file type so the problem is not trivial"
- [Deploy ANY AI App to the Cloud FAST](../../sources/deploy-any-ai-app-to-the-cloud-fast.md)
- [Build a FULL Stack App for your n8n AI Agent in 20 Minutes](../../sources/build-a-full-stack-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agent-in-20-minutes.md) - "[0:00:00] everyone and their mom is using n8n to build AI agents right now it is the most popular topic on my channel"
- [I Built a FULL RAG AI Agent with No Code in 4 Minutes with VectorShift](../../sources/i-built-a-full-rag-ai-agent-with-no-code-in-4-minutes-with-vectorshift.md)
- [The HARD Truth About Hosting Your Own LLMs](../../sources/the-hard-truth-about-hosting-your-own-llms.md)
- [Don't Sleep on the ULTIMATE AI Agent Combo (n8n, LangChain, Python)](../../sources/dont-sleep-on-the-ultimate-ai-agent-combo-n8n-langchain-python.md)
- [Run ALL Your AI Locally in Minutes (LLMs, RAG, and more)](../../sources/run-all-your-ai-locally-in-minutes-llms-rag-and-more.md)
- [Local vs. Cloud LLMs/RAG - Let's FINALLY End this Debate](../../sources/local-vs-cloud-llmsrag-lets-finally-end-this-debate.md)
- [V0 + Claude: A GAME CHANGER for Building AI Apps](../../sources/v0-claude-a-game-changer-for-building-ai-apps.md)
- [This RAG AI Agent with n8n + Supabase is the Real Deal](../../sources/this-rag-ai-agent-with-n8n-supabase-is-the-real-deal.md) - "[0:00:30] n8n is an incredible and costeffective workflow automation tool similar to make.com and zapier"
- [No Code RAG Agents? You HAVE to Check out n8n + LangChain](../../sources/no-code-rag-agents-you-have-to-check-out-n8n-langchain.md)
- [You're WASTING TIME Coding Your AI Agents](../../sources/youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents.md)
- [Build a Chatbot for Your Website in 4 Minutes (No Code)](../../sources/build-a-chatbot-for-your-website-in-4-minutes-no-code.md)
