n8n: what it is and how we use it

n8n is a workflow automation platform. You build workflows on a visual canvas, connect apps through 500+ native integrations or any API over HTTP, and write code in a step when the logic needs it. It also builds AI agent workflows.

It runs in n8n's cloud or on your own servers. A free self-hosted Community Edition is on GitHub, and the paid plans charge per workflow execution, not per step or per user.

We draw the orchestration layer the same way across our systems: Clay orchestrates data, n8n orchestrates workflows. Clay is where a record gets enriched and scored; n8n is what carries it from one system to the next.

Our own knowledge base runs on it: n8n workflows keep the context Claude reads up to date. For clients it is the glue between tools, such as a workflow that delivers reporting data into the client's own SharePoint.

One thing to plan for: when a cloud plan reaches its execution limit, runs stop, and n8n's own error workflow cannot report it because it needs an execution too. Monitor your workflows from outside n8n.

Every plan includes unlimited users and workflows. The cloud trial needs no card.

• logic with real branches, loops or code steps
• strict data residency rules, where self-hosting matters
• a team with someone technical enough to own the workflows

• one non-technical person has to maintain it alone
• enriching and scoring records, which belongs in a table tool like Clay

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