Building on n8n's Dominance

# Playbook: Building on n8n's Dominance

*How spotting an overlooked trend led to a tool that attracted interest from Yahoo Italy and Latecheckout.*

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## The n8n Undercurrent

In Q1 2025, while Twitter was obsessing over AI agents and copilots, I was quietly watching Google Trends.

That's when I spotted it:

**n8n**—the open-source automation tool—was surging. Not just among devs, but globally.

In regions like Italy, Brazil, and Southeast Asia, it was overtaking Zapier and Make.

So while everyone else tried to rebuild Zapier with AI…

I built something *for* n8n users, right where the demand was quietly compounding.

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## The Wedge: AI Workflow Generator for n8n

Everyone loves automation. Nobody wants to click 43 times to build it.

So I built a tool that lets you type:

> "When a Calendly call is booked, create a Notion doc, email the summary, and post to Slack."

And get back:

✅ A fully functional n8n JSON workflow

✅ Paste → Run → Done

✅ Clean, labeled, error-handled flows

No UI builder. No guessing. Just structure.

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## The Architecture Trap I Escaped

The first version was classic "AI overkill":

* Multi-agent setup: one for nodes, one for linking, one for cleanup

* It worked... but took 24 seconds and cost too much

I scrapped it.

Rebuilt it with a **single-agent + tool-call** system:

* 26s → 11s latency

* Lower cost, higher reliability

This was my inflection point.

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## Three Things That Worked

### 1. Ride the Infra Wave

I optimized my messaging on Skool posts, Linkedin and X around:

> "Best way to generate n8n workflows in seconds"

For some reason that phrase hit.

Inbound interest from:

* Yahoo Italy

* Latecheckout

* Indie founders building automation products

Not because I begged.

Because they were already searching for it.

### 2. Zero-Friction Value


Just: prompt → get JSON → plug into n8n.

That one-line flow made people curious to try it.

It felt like **"Cursor, but for workflows."**

### 3. Treat the LLM like a Builder, Not a Genius

Instead of hoping GPT "understood" how to build n8n flows, I gave it tools to call to depend on.

It started reasoning more like a craftman building n8n workflows.

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## This Month Snapshot

* 450 early users

* Avg: 1.7 workflows generated per user (~18 power users)

* Inbound interest from multiple orgs (including enterprise teams)

The generator is still slow but most importantly, it's getting traction with the right people.

Once the generator is fast enough, I'll be able to build a community around it.

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## What Didn't Work

* ❌ Multi-agent orchestration: Slow and overcomplicated

Lesson: **Don't overcomplicate things.**

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## What You Can Steal

If you're building in AI or automation, consider:

1. **Pick an infra wave before it crests** — n8n was it. What's next?

2. **One-prompt value** — if your product can't show value in a single line, you'll lose users before they click "Sign up."

3. **Ship for builders, not browsers** — Devs don't want guardrails. They want clarity, control, and copy-paste speed.

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## What's Next

* I'm planing a big release of 8nodes v3 with a completely revamped agentic workflow that is much faster and more reliable.

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**If you're betting on n8n or building infra-native AI tools, let's talk.**

I've battle-tested three architectures and built a prompt engine devs actually enjoy using.