n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool — think Zapier but self-hosted and developer-friendly. Claude handles the intelligence layer. Together they let you build automations that actually understand content, not just route it.

Prerequisites

n8n running locally or on a VPS ( npx n8n or Docker)

Anthropic API key from console.anthropic.com

Basic familiarity with n8n's node interface

Step 1: Add Claude via HTTP Request Node

n8n doesn't have a native Claude node yet, but the HTTP Request node covers everything.

Configure it:

Method: POST URL: https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages Headers: x-api-key: YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY anthropic-version: 2023-06-01 Content-Type: application/json Body (JSON): { "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6", "max_tokens": 1024, "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "{{ $json.input_text }}" } ] }

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Extract the response text with: {{ $json.content[0].text }}

Workflow 1: Email Summarizer

Automatically summarize incoming emails and…