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What are you using n8n for? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I see n8n everywhere and while I love automation I can't think of a use case, that couldn't be realized in Bash instead.

So I'm wondering, if you use n8n what are you using it for?

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[–] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (21 children)

Also would like to know. Bad title.

Edit: it's more AI agent shit. Disregard everything. I don't want to know more.

Edit 2 for some of you:

n8n gives you more freedom to implement multi-step AI agents and integrate apps than any other tool.

Right on the frontpage.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Edit: it’s more AI agent shit. Disregard everything. I don’t want to know more.

    n8n can be run with the assistance of AI, and n8n can also be run without AI.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Anything that puts on the front page of its project site the use case for itself to relate to AI agents instantly makes me suspicious and not interested. I can't help it.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    I get it. Some of us are staunch anti-ai. That's fine. I am not an n8n sales person, but I just wanted to make it clear, there are two versions and you can integrate a host of thing into it. Personally, I would run the AI version with a private AI that doesn't need an external LLM. But my equipment is not that new and it takes some power to run AI efficiently and effectively. No issues with anyone, it just seemed that there was some confusion.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago* (8 children)
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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    No it's not?

    n8n gives you more freedom to implement multi-step AI agents and integrate apps than any other tool.

    🤷‍♂️ Guess their frontpage is full of shit then.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago* (4 children)

    could be one of those cases where the product predates ai but some c-level asked an engineer "could we use this for ai" and the engineer said "i mean, technically yes" and then marketing changed every single mention of the product

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Possibly 🤷‍♂️ As soon as I see AI agent, I stop reading.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    yeah this project has been on github for six years and seems to have been closed source before that. it's a graphical automation tool.

    like, everything can be used with ai. github itself has "ai agent" plastered everywhere. it's just a buzzword. doesn't mean it's built specifically for ai.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    It's automation. Skim the link I sent. Something pops up in a log file or an API returns X instead of Y and you can do some logic based on that. Send yourself an email, ping another API, etc. Sure, you can use it to query an LLM API but that's just marketing. Frontpages are marketing, yes

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Skim the link I sent.

    Marketing matters. I am not interested. And that's fine. I don't have any use for this product, AI or no AI. Everyone can go about their business now and relax all your efforts to make me interested in this. Thank you for showing me that respect.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (8 children)

    Thank you. You saved me a Google search.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    The comment was wrong. It's an automation tool. It can use ai, but its not the primary focus.

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  • [–] -4 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Wrong?

    n8n gives you more freedom to implement multi-step AI agents and integrate apps than any other tool.

    It's the main pitch, bro. It's the primary focus.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    And the vast majority of my automations don't use it because it isn't required.

    I will stand by what I said, the tool is great even if you don't touch AI at all with it.

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    You're entitled to your opinion. 🤷‍♂️ I will not go near a product that tries to make anything AI the primary focus of itself. This is my opinion and I'm not really looking for anyone to change it, nor am I looking for anyone whose opinion I can change. 😊

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    I hear theres a few neo Mennonite colonies starting up that only use tech before the turn of the millenia. Maybe you could look into them.

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago

    Do you take this so personally that you are now resorting to ad hominems? My guy. 🤭

    Is this your personal project? Why are you getting this butthurt? I just don't care about AI, because I don't need to use it. And I don't have to care about AI for anyone.

    You should see my inbox full of people just like you yapping on and on about this n8n thing, explaining what it's for, when I explicitly said I don't want to know more.

    Listen, so you won't feel so sad anymore: I'm not opposed to using AI, I'm just sick of hearing about it because I don't need it for the reasons everybody is saying I should.

    Now can you either act like an adult or not talk to me again? Thanks, my dude.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    You can integrate a host of things into n8n including AI, however you can also just run n8n as an automation tool without anything else integrated. It does take a little reading of the docs to figure that out. I am sure that most people run n8n with AI, and admittedly, the front page of the n8n site promotes the AI version because other users would like to run n8n with AI. Some in this thread are suffering from knee jerk syndrome.

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