Practical Workflow Automation, Integrations, and AI Agents from First Flow to Production

Read before you buy: the PDF here is a free sample — the first 20 pages of the 401-page book (payments, sales and reviews on this demo site are sample data). Get the full e-book at thenexbooks on Gumroad.

Stop copying and pasting. Start automating.

Every team has work nobody enjoys and everybody repeats: copying form submissions into a spreadsheet, posting a heads-up in chat, sending the same follow-up email, chasing overdue invoices, filing documents, compiling the same weekly numbers. Each task takes a few minutes — which is exactly why it never gets fixed.

This book shows you how to hand that work to n8n, step by step, using one realistic running example: Loomwell, a small creative studio with a contact form, a Google Sheets CRM, Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, Stripe, and later a PostgreSQL database. You start with a two-node workflow and finish with a reliable, monitored automation estate — including AI steps that classify, extract, and draft, with a human approving anything that matters.

• 401 pages · 28 chapters + 4 appendices · practice exercises in every chapter
• How n8n really works: workflows, nodes, items, executions, and expressions
• Triggers: schedules, webhooks, forms, and app events
• Transforming data, branching, merging, and loops
• Calling any API with the HTTP Request node, credentials, and OAuth2
• The Code node in JavaScript and Python, when built-in nodes are not enough
• Email, Slack, Telegram, Google Sheets, Airtable, PostgreSQL, Google Drive, PDFs, and CSV
• A complete lead-capture pipeline and scheduled reports
• Error workflows, retries, sub-workflows, human approval, pagination, and rate limits
• Testing and debugging with pinned data and execution history
• AI steps and agents with tools, memory, document Q&A, and structured output — with safety and cost controls
• Self-hosting with Docker Compose, PostgreSQL, queue mode, backups, security, and monitoring

Table Of Contents

Part I — Automation Foundations

• Ch 1 · Why Automate: Finding Repetitive Work Worth Automating
• Ch 2 · Setting Up n8n: Cloud, Docker, and npm — and Your First Workflow
• Ch 3 · How n8n Thinks: Workflows, Nodes, Items, and Executions
• Ch 4 · Triggers: Manual, Schedule, Webhook, Form, and App Events
• Ch 5 · Expressions and Data Mapping: Working with JSON in n8n

Part II — Core Building Blocks

• Ch 6 · Transforming Data: Edit Fields, Filter, Sort, Aggregate, Split Out, and Remove Duplicates
• Ch 7 · Logic and Flow Control: If, Switch, Merge, and Loops
• Ch 8 · Talking to Any API with the HTTP Request Node
• Ch 9 · Credentials, Authentication, and OAuth2 Done Safely
• Ch 10 · The Code Node: JavaScript and Python When Built-in Nodes Are Not Enough

Part III — Everyday Automations

• Ch 11 · Email and Messaging: Gmail, SMTP, Slack, and Telegram
• Ch 12 · Spreadsheets and Databases: Google Sheets, Airtable, and PostgreSQL
• Ch 13 · Files and Documents: Google Drive, PDFs, CSV, and Binary Data
• Ch 14 · Forms, Webhooks, and a Complete Lead-Capture Pipeline
• Ch 15 · Scheduled Reports and Digests

Part IV — Robust Workflows

• Ch 16 · Error Handling: Retries, Error Workflows, and Alerts
• Ch 17 · Sub-Workflows and Reusable Building Blocks
• Ch 18 · Waiting, Human Approval, and Long-Running Processes
• Ch 19 · Batching, Pagination, Rate Limits, and Large Data Sets
• Ch 20 · Testing and Debugging: Pinned Data, Execution History, and Versioning Workflows

Part V — AI Automation

• Ch 21 · AI in n8n: Chat Models, Prompts, and Structured Output
• Ch 22 · Building AI Agents with Tools and Memory
• Ch 23 · Document Q&A with Retrieval-Augmented Generation
• Ch 24 · AI for Operations: Classification, Extraction, Summaries, and Human Review
• Ch 25 · Safety, Cost, and Quality Controls for AI Workflows

Part VI — Production

• Ch 26 · Self-Hosting in Production: Docker Compose, PostgreSQL, Queue Mode, and Backups
• Ch 27 · Security, Governance, Monitoring, and Scaling
• Ch 28 · Case Study: Automating Loomwell's Operations End to End

Appendices

• App A · n8n Expressions and Nodes Cheat Sheet
• App B · Templates and Snippet Reference
• App C · Production Checklist
• App D · Glossary

WHO IT IS FOR
Operations and admin staff, freelancers and small-business owners, analysts and marketers who move data between tools, and developers and IT staff who want a fast, maintainable way to connect systems — and host it safely. No programming required for the first half of the book.

FORMAT
PDF (A4), 401 pages, English, clickable table of contents and PDF bookmarks. 1st Edition, 2026. Published by thenexbooks.

This book is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by n8n GmbH. n8n is a trademark of n8n GmbH. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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