🚀 DevOps
n8n Workflow Automation
Open-source workflow automation platform with a visual node-based editor for connecting APIs, processing data, and triggering actions. Think Zapier or Make, but self-hosted — no per-execution pricing, full code access, and it runs on your own infrastructure. Every workflow is a directed graph of nodes that pass data from one step to the next.
2
Minutes
6
Concepts
+45
XP
1
Core Concepts
- Workflows: The complete automation — a graph of connected nodes with a trigger and one or more actions. Saved as JSON, version-controllable
- Nodes: Individual steps in the workflow. Types include HTTP Request, Slack, Code (JavaScript), IF/Switch, Set, Merge, and hundreds of integrations
- Triggers: What starts a workflow — a webhook (external event hits a URL), a cron schedule (run every hour), or a manual button click
- Credentials: Stored API keys and OAuth tokens for connected services. Managed in n8n's credential store, encrypted at rest. Never hardcoded in workflow JSON
- Expressions: Inline references to data from previous nodes using
{{ $json.field }}syntax. How data flows between steps