03 Jan What is a Workflow in n8n

An n8n workflow is a collection of nodes connected to automate a process, beginning execution when a trigger condition occurs and executing sequentially to achieve complex tasks. Think of it as a visual flowchart that automates a sequence of actions across different apps and services.

Core Components of a Workflow

A typical n8n workflow is built from two main types of nodes:

• Trigger Node: This is the starting point. It listens for a specific event (like a new form submission, a scheduled time, or an incoming webhook) to initiate the entire workflow.
• Action Nodes: These carry out the logic and tasks. After the trigger, data flows from one action node to the next. These nodes can interact with apps (like Slack or Google Sheets), transform data, run custom code, or call AI models.

A Practical Example

Here is a simple workflow that automatically summarizes a product review and posts it to a team’s Slack channel:

In this example:

1. The Form Trigger node activates the workflow when a customer submits a new product review.
2. The AI Summarization node (an action node) sends the review text to a Large Language Model (like Gemini or OpenAI) and requests a concise summary.
3. The Slack node (another action node) takes the generated summary and posts it automatically to a designated team channel.

How to Create and Run a Workflow

• Creating a Workflow: In the n8n editor, you create a new workflow and then add your first step—typically a trigger node—by clicking “Add first step”.
• Running a Workflow:
  • Manually: Any workflow can be run on-demand by clicking the Execute Workflow button, which is useful for building and testing.
  • Automatically: For a workflow to run automatically based on its trigger (e.g., every hour or when data is received), you must publish it. Unpublished workflows remain inactive until run manually.

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