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 }}" } ] } Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Extract the response text with: {{ $json.content[0].text }} Workflow 1: Email Summarizer Automatically summarize incoming emails and send a daily…