Guides to n8n and AI agents.

The n8n AI Agent is a node in which a language model receives instructions (a system message) and a set of tools, then decides on its own which tools to call to complete a task. Without tools it is just a chat. With tools, most often sub-workflows, the agent can read a document, check data in a spreadsheet and make a judgement call no plain rule can handle. Since August 2026 n8n also has a separate Agents category: agents with their own memory, channels and skills that live outside a single workflow.

Claude Code connects to n8n through the n8n-mcp MCP server: one terminal command adds the server, and the agent gets documentation for every n8n node, configuration validation and workflow operations on your instance. From then on it can build, fix and test a workflow from a description in plain language. More than 143,000 people use n8n-mcp, and its telemetry shows agents spend four times more calls reading and checking than writing.

n8n Cloud starts at €20 a month for 2,500 workflow executions, and the price grows with executions. Self-hosted n8n in the free Community Edition has no execution limit, costs what the server and maintenance time cost, and keeps data inside the company. For companies handling documents, personal data or larger volumes I recommend your own server. Cloud makes sense at the start, when nobody in the company wants to run a server.