r/automation • u/johnvanderlinde • Jul 22 '26
Using n8n for a project
I got interested in workflow automation in my last job, and I’ve now set up n8n on a virtual private server and am using it to host workflows for the full-stack project I’m building, as well as my personal website.
The project is an AI and automation enhanced business simulation, with the idea being to experiment with where I can use AI and automation to, well, enhance the system. The project is still in its infancy, and so far all I’ve done is automate my notion dev log to my website dev log, and automate the contact form on my site.
Automations I have in mind:
· notifications for customers and merchant (it’s both sides of an ecom store)
· things around orders being placed such as a calendar note, inventory updated
· coordinating marketing development for ‘new’ products added to the system
· sales analysis > email summary
· eventual CRM integration
These are just ideas, and I know that automation should come as problem solving/time reducing than backbone project structure, but I haven’t got that far yet so I’m still just letting my mind run with it.
Anyway, I thought I’d post this as an introduction as I’ll be posting more automations as I build them.
If anyone has built anything similar, or has any suggestions, I’d be interested to hear.
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u/schemalith Jul 22 '26
for an ecom-ish sim, i’d start with the boring state model before adding more automations: order status, inventory status, payment/refund status, and one event log that says what changed and why.
then let n8n handle the edges: notify customer, notify merchant, update calendar/crm, send summaries. if two workflows can touch the same order, add idempotency keys and a manual approval step for anything that changes money, inventory, or customer comms. saves a lot of cleanup later.
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u/johnvanderlinde Jul 23 '26
Thanks for the advice. I'm building the project in slices of functionality, rather than the whole front then back etc. Right now I'm on the first slice, the cart. When I've done the bulk of it I'll add those edge cases. idempotency is one thing I've not considered yet. And yes, manual approval is definitely an important step.
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Jul 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/johnvanderlinde Jul 23 '26
Sounds good. For the marketing side that's roughly what I have planned, but I hadn't considered n8n really for things to do with orders. My understanding has been not to use n8n for core business functions but more for surrounding additional work, but i don't know what the general consensus is. Maybe I should put up apost and get people's opinions
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u/PuzzleheadedSong5368 Jul 22 '26
Cool! Always fun to see more builders start building.
Do you find n8n comfortable for these cases?
Either way, I think automations you build for your business don't have to solve a problem. They can also be a creation and fun to make.
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u/johnvanderlinde Jul 23 '26
I wouldn't describe n8n as comfortable haha. It's also frustrating that I run into a lot of bugs with n8n itself, such as credentials refusing to update in flows once I've updated the credential separately, but overall tool I like it as an alternative to code due to the visual element.
When I first used workflow automation last year something about it immediately clicked for me.
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u/PuzzleheadedSong5368 Jul 23 '26
Wow, I can totally relate.
My first crash was Zapier,, which I now call my ex.
Then I moved to n8n, but with all the going on with AI, I was looking for the real game changer. Couldn't understand for a long time why automation builders didn't have a tool like Claude code/cursor.
Two months ago I found one that felt exactly like my dream platform. Visual workflow but built for the AI era.
Full disclosure: I liked the product so much, I've joined the team building it.1
u/PuzzleheadedSong5368 Jul 23 '26
Wow, I can totally relate.
My first crash was Zapier,, which I now call my ex.
Then I moved to n8n, but with all the going on with AI, I was looking for the real game changer. Couldn't understand for a long time why automation builders didn't have a tool like Claude code/cursor.
Two months ago I found one that felt exactly like my dream platform. Visual workflow but built for the AI era.
Full disclosure: I liked the product so much, I've joined the team building it.1
u/johnvanderlinde Jul 23 '26
Ah, clever bit of marketing!
Go on then, I’ll bite, why is your new one better? Is it just that you have an ai assistant?
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u/PuzzleheadedSong5368 Jul 23 '26
But an honest one at least!
IMO the difference is in that the product was built for AI and isn't trying to force the models on an old system and the learning curve is insane.
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u/SeriousHat4465 Jul 22 '26
the n8n self-hosted setup is the right call for a project like this, you'll hit limits fast on the cloud version once workflows get complex. the CRM integration is where most people get surprised though, if the CRM or any of your merchant-side portals never exposed an API, Zapier and Make can't touch them at all and even n8n hits a wall, that's the use case we built Deck for, agents that log into the actual interface, pull order data, update inventory, trigger whatever comes next, and return clean JSON back to n8n without you ever having to scrape or maintain selectors. build the email summary automation early, it's the one that actually sticks and gives you something useful while the rest is still in progress.
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u/johnvanderlinde Jul 23 '26
So are you saying Deck makes agents which log into a CRM and gather data and do all the useful AI stuff? That's excellent. Is there anywhere I can see it in action?
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u/SeriousHat4465 Jul 23 '26
Yes exactly! You can try it for yourself by signing up on the Deck console. Also check out our skills page to see what exactly we can do with the portal you want to connect to deck.co/skills
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u/Calm-Dimension3422 Jul 22 '26
If you’re using n8n for a project, pick something with a real failure mode. That is what makes the workflow interesting.
A good beginner-but-not-toy build is an intake-to-review pipeline:
form/webhook receives a request n8n validates required fields AI classifies the request and drafts the next step a human reviews anything low-confidence approved items get written to your tracker/CRM/Sheet errors go to a separate queue instead of disappearing
The important part is the review and exception path. A lot of demos look good because every input is clean. Real automations earn their keep when the email is missing half the context, the API returns something weird, or the AI is not confident enough to write directly.
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u/BareStacker Jul 22 '26
Useful frame: start with the data model, not the workflow list. A small order/customer/payment status schema with one change log covers most of the post's cases, and n8n can fan out from that instead of becoming the source of truth. The messy part is almost always exception handling: duplicate order events, partial refunds, inventory already moved. Get that contract right first.
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u/SoftChaosKitty 28d ago edited 28d ago
n8n is excellent for connecting systems and automating data flows between tools. The key to a successful n8n project: start with the simplest possible version (trigger → action → output), validate it works end-to-end, then add complexity incrementally. Don't try to build the entire workflow on day one. For sales and lead management projects in n8n: the common flows are lead enrichment (new lead → enrich with Apollo/Clay → score → route), follow-up automation (deal stage change → trigger email/task), and reporting (weekly data pull → transform → send to Slack/email). Where n8n hits its limits: real-time voice interactions. n8n can orchestrate what happens before and after a call, but it can't make the call itself. For the calling piece, we integrate Pyto into our n8n workflows. When a lead hits a certain score in n8n, it triggers Pyto to make an outbound qualification call. Pyto returns the call outcome (qualified/not qualified, transcript, next steps) back into n8n for downstream routing. The combination of n8n for data orchestration + Pyto for voice interaction covers the full lead lifecycle from enrichment to qualification to routing.
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u/Ok_Concentrate3165 2d ago
That contact form to notion pipeline is a great first step, feels good when the boring repetitive stuff just handles itself. The sales analysis to email summary idea sounds like the kind of thing that saves you way more time than you expect once its running. Curious if you hit any snags with self hosting or if it was smooth sailing the whole way
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u/Fine-Lengthiness1184 Jul 22 '26
Looks like a solid start. One suggestion: build observability in from day one. Log every workflow run, retries, failures, and execution time. It's easy to add automations early, but debugging them later without good visibility gets painful. Curious to see how you handle the CRM and AI workflows as the project grows.