n8n + Claude API: Complete Automation Guide (2026)

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