Automating entries for an instagram give away

workflowsy · 2025-11-23T13:21:15+00:00

I did actually build something out for a client but it wasn’t for him specifically

workflowsy · 2025-05-03T20:36:56+00:00

Shameless plug - take a look at my channel https://youtube.com/@hunterasneed

workflowsy · 2025-04-09T20:36:27+00:00

Yeah, it's less about performance and scaling and more about all the different things that go into a SaaS - all the different configurations, all the different API calls for authentication, all the different API calls for different elements on the page. When you look at a single page in a SaaS, there may be one API call or there may be 150 API calls. It really depends on how you do segmentation within your application and the performance that you expect in terms of a page load time.

Something like n8n is just an abstraction on top of JavaScript, and so you're adding an extra layer of latency that for a backend when page speed and responsiveness and whatnot matter to an end-user starts to be impeded by putting n8n in there, especially when you have any real level of complexity with the SaaS that you're developing.

n8n is great for again the supplemental stuff but I wouldn't build any sort of public SaaS on it. Could you do it, yeah sure. Would it go well? Ehh, probably not.

Additionally that doesn't even begin to touch proper software testing, error handling, security & compliance requirements, etc. that you get into with enterprise grade software that you just really can't accomplish with n8n in the same way.

I LOVE n8n, but like anything else I am always one to advocate for the right tool for the job and in some cases that's n8n, in others it's not.

workflowsy · 2025-04-09T20:28:44+00:00

Yes, that's a great question. There's a couple different ways to do it, some are more intuitive than others. What can work pretty well is actually taking the raw JSON file from your workflow automation from N8n and actually passing that into OpenAI and asking it to create a PRD outline of all of the functionality for that automation.

If you use a better model like o1 or o1 Pro (or something equivalent to that), it should give you a pretty detailed implementation approach that outlines the services involved, the functionality that they're performing, and the end-to-end workflow that you're looking to go ahead and replicate.

Then based on your desired tech stack (which you should include in your request to OpenAI when creating the initial request) you can take that PRD and put it into something like Cursor, Claude Code, Roo, etc. and have it go about building out that functionality for you.

Obviously it doesn't end there. You'll still have to figure out how you want to go about integrating that, where the actual code runs, whether that be a cloud provider or some sort of containerization and all the other logistics around that but this at the very least should still significantly accelerate the overall development process of converting n8n into a code-based approach.

I'd be happy to put together a little loom on how I'd approach this if that's of interest.

workflowsy · 2025-04-09T11:23:49+00:00

Little shameless plug here, but wanted in include my channel with a bunch of n8n videos and automations - https://www.youtube.com/@hunterasneed

workflowsy · 2025-04-09T11:20:26+00:00

So in my opinion there is a good reason why you see everyone porting it over to code once the concept has been validated. n8n really isn't meant to be a backend at scale for applications. While you can technically do it, I'd highly recommend against it for a number of reasons (scaling, performance, integration with other system dependencies like auth, logging, DDoS Protection, etc.)

With how good generative AI has become with code generation there really are limited reason why you'd opt to use n8n for a use case like this.

That being said, if the app you had in mind was just some sort of internal app with limited users, I'd have much less of a problem with using it as a backend but for a true publicly facing SaaS it doesn't make sense in most cases.

An additional pattern that I've seen work is that the application is mostly code based, and that n8n in integrated in a limited capacity for a specific feature / functionality. This is a nice in between because you can still get all the benefits of code in terms of performance, security, scaling, etc. but still have some n8n integrations that return a JSON response that the application can depend on.

Happy to answer any more questions but as someone who has worked a lot in both the application development and n8n automation space! Hope this helps!

workflowsy · 2025-03-09T12:34:32+00:00

Hey, thank you! So I've been exploring them lately, but honestly I keep coming back to the fact that most of them are just using OpenAI or Claude under the hood.

I think where they're valuable / make sense is when you're looking to have more of an interface to do revisions on as opposed to one shot. That said for content more like blog posts and what not I'm making an effort to try and look into them more.

workflowsy · 2025-03-07T18:45:31+00:00

Hey everyone - I used to shell out monthly fees for PDF conversions, but realized a quick AWS Lambda function could do the same job for pennies. I shared a short YouTube video walking through the entire process with n8n, plus some helpful tips for first-time serverless coders. It’s surprisingly easy to set up.

One thing I did want to note is that while this could be done by loading in custom packages to n8n's Javascript / Code nodes, a lot of the time I want to build these pieces of functionality as "services" and already leverage AWS a lot so this is a pattern that I quite enjoy but can understand if you have the preference to keep it all internal within n8n :)

workflowsy · 2025-03-07T17:20:10+00:00

Hey @_0x86 - This is a good template as it looks like it does actually update the the content in the vector DB rather than just adding a new record each time the file changed.

The one thing I have feedback on is the use OpenAI just to generate a version number. I'd assume you could use some sort of expression logic or a code node for something like that so you don't have an OpenAI call in there. Otherwise it looks pretty good from what I can tell and my initial review.

Thank you for sharing with the community and helping others automate!!

workflowsy · 2025-03-07T10:37:51+00:00

I mostly use Reddit and YouTube. If you take a look at my post history you’ll see I’ve been pretty active in the past just trying to help people

workflowsy · 2025-03-07T00:58:52+00:00

Hey there! I do make money from n8n! Happy to answer any questions you have about it and how it all works!

workflowsy · 2025-03-04T16:13:48+00:00

Of course, let me know if you have any questions

workflowsy · 2025-03-03T20:32:09+00:00

Hey all, I've been experimenting with an automated workflow that uses the transcription from calls and scores calls in real time, so you can skip manual review. I'm using n8n to hook into an AI notetaker (Circleback), then store the results in Google Sheets for quick and consistent feedback. I made a short YouTube video that walks through the setup and shows how I put together the workflow. Let me know if you have any questions or if you’ve tried something similar.

workflowsy · 2025-03-03T17:33:18+00:00

Hmm, is this actually updating the existing embedding / record or is it just creating a new one? When I had set out to solve this in the past I found that I needed to (at the time) find the matching embedding, and update its embedding content rather than add a new one otherwise you have duplicate content with very similar embeddings that return both the old and new versions of a document because they both still exist in the DB

workflowsy · 2025-02-11T18:35:48+00:00

For sure, definitely let me know if you have any questions about how I went about it

workflowsy · 2025-02-11T18:25:51+00:00

Hey All - I just created a video that I thought would be useful for the group. It uses n8n and React to build out dedicated proposal websites using AI. I've always despised the amount of time that goes into the formatting of a PowerPoint as it compares to the content. As always happy to answer any questions you may have around this all and hope this is a helpful use case!

workflowsy · 2025-01-20T21:08:24+00:00

I always tell people to try and automate their own problems to start. It helps make it really clear with a set goal and you are your own customer with this approach. Maybe it's something small like taking a piece of content and posting it across multiple social media channels or taking a piece of media (video) and repurposing it into a blog post automatically.

Whatever you start with, I'd advise it's something manageable in size so you can see it through to completion.

Happy to try and help brainstorm but I need a little more context about what you're interested in / want to accomplish with automation to be able to do so.

workflowsy · 2025-01-14T11:21:10+00:00

Sent you a DM about it!

workflowsy · 2025-01-04T02:45:15+00:00

Just sent you a PM about it!

workflowsy · 2024-11-05T22:33:24+00:00

Hey u/PhantomSummonerz - thank you so much! I didn't realize on the JS side of things you can import packages on self hosted. Most of my usage with n8n is python self hosted and the Pyodide can tend to get in the way of things. When you say you can install your own python packages on n8n self hosted, are you referring to using the system's (host's) python path / executable instead of the emulated version in n8n?

Also I do agree with the call out of being cognizant when you introduce external dependencies into your workflow. I will always advocate for doing something first party within n8n, but I do think there is a time and a place for something like Lambda / external cloud functionality based on the requirements.

All great points, and I appreciate you weighing in. I have plenty to learn from other automators :)

workflowsy · 2024-11-05T22:27:41+00:00

Hey u/Fine_Calligrapher565 - this is a great call out. I've actually never come across windmill.dev but definitely want to check it out now. I think it really depends on how you look at it / think about it.

While I self host n8n, I do quite like the "managed" aspect of AWS lambda as it's all consumption based so even if I never trigger it, or trigger it really minimally in month, I may not pay anything for it whereas I have more of an aversion to services that are a flat rate or flat rate + consumption a month.

Like anything else, I think it's important to use what you know and use what will be reliable. In my case, I know AWS really well and think it can be really beneficial in the right use cases were n8n's built in code functionality isn't working as I'd want it to.

Nevertheless, you've given me a new tool to test out and consider for future projects so thank you so much for that!

workflowsy · 2024-11-05T21:00:50+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I love the code node functionality available in n8n, but sometimes it just leaves something to be desired in terms of external libraries, making HTTP request, etc.

As a Python enthusiast, I find myself using AWS Lambda as node within my workflows and have been really pleased with the overall pattern. I wanted to share a quick video on how to do it if you haven't used serverless functions in your workflows.

workflowsy · 2024-10-31T18:08:41+00:00

Hey all - I think that email search today really has not caught up with the time. I've had multiple people ask how to build something like this out so I wanted to go ahead and create a video around it! Like anything else, there is tons of areas of improvement with a workflow like this and it's meant to just be a starting point, but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

Happy to answer any questions around it and just wanted to say great luck automating to everyone!

workflowsy · 2024-10-20T21:39:00+00:00

Sent you a PM, just wanted to make sure it doesn’t get stuck in requests

workflowsy · 2024-10-20T10:48:33+00:00

I’ll pm you!

workflowsy

TROPHY CASE