Automation & AI
All blog posts about automation (usually about n8n) and AI-related workflows and comments.
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One of the frustrating aspects of LLMs is their lack of consistency unless you develop specific skills, which can take time to implement effectively. For example, I wanted to generate documentation for my most recent n8n automation workflow, but Claude was unable to do it, and I can’t remember the prompt that finally made it possible. I should have saved it somewhere for easy retrieval. I’m wasting precious credits. 🤦🏻♂️
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Simon Willison on AI-assisted programming:
The more time I spend on AI-assisted programming the less afraid I am for my job, because it turns out building software - especially at the rate it’s now possible to build - still requires enormous skill, experience and depth of understanding.
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In today’s world, with LLM, Claude Code, etc., is Apple’s Swift Playground still relevant, even for younger aspiring coders? A few years ago, it seems we were hearing much more about it than today.
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Apparently, people are barely using Stack Overflow to ask questions, thanks to LLMs and AI. I expect a similar trend among people in a community like this one on Micro.blog. Some questions would be super easy to answer by asking ChatGPT or the like. I do understand that many people still want this human touch, though.
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Updated my n8n instance from v2.0.3 to v2.2.4. Super easy to do (I’m using the Docker Compose installation provided by the DigitalOcean 1-click install droplet. Took a droplet snapshot before, just in case something goes wrong. So far, so good. Of course, Claude helped me out on this. I’m not a Linux or Docker expert. 😅
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Claude Code skills are probably the most intriguing aspect of Claude Code and Claude AI. I’m not so sure yet how to take advantage of them. My understanding from this excellent video is that you have to be an expert at something to create those skills.md file.
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An Important Lesson
When I started my studies in computer science over 40 years ago, we learned to read functional specifications and then translate them into machine instructions (COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, etc.). It was the training of a programmer. I knew that one day I could become the person who writes functional specifications. I didn’t become a programmer, nor did I work in the development world. Due to my recent experience with Claude AI, Claude Code, and Vercel to create custom applications, I realize that I have become the one who writes functional specifications, but for processing by artificial intelligence. Continue reading →
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Added a new and much-needed feature to my micro.blog front end. See my prompt below.
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On OpenRouter.ai
I just finished reading about the service openrouter.ai. I was curious to understand the purpose of this service as well as its business model. I saw several instances of this service being used in n8n workflows. The problem I see with this service is that it makes the consistency of the quality of responses from the requested LLMs even more unpredictable. Each request could be handled by LLMs with different characteristics and performance from one time to another. Continue reading →
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My latest n8n workflow automates summarizing my Micro.blog timeline (via its private RSS feed) and sends the results to my Discord server every hour. Pretty cool, right?
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Today, I created a new blog post category. Now, all blog posts related to automation (usually n8n-based) or AI will be assigned the “Automation & AI” category. I went back to my blog posts and updated a few of them to reflect this change. You can follow the blog posts with this dedicated RSS feed, which is automagically created and maintained by Micro.blog.
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I’m discovering this powerful n8n node this morning. This means I could trigger that workflow from an external source, such as a Telegram message, and receive a response with some RSS content.
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I’ve been working on a new workflow that would let me skip using Ulysses when sharing new content from Craft to Ghost. To that end, Claude came to the rescue as always, but I’m not done yet. Here are a few details.
Claude needs an n8n workflow (exposed via the n8n MCP server) to retrieve the content of a specific document using Craft APIs. Using an n8n workflow keeps credentials secure, as I don’t need to provide them directly in Claude prompts. Next, Claude converts Craft blocks to well-formatted HTML, the format Ghost expects from its APIs. Next, Claude depends on another small n8n workflow to securely push the HTML content to Ghost. Those two n8n workflows use webhooks (triggers) and HTTP requests (GET, POST) to transfer information between Craft and Ghost via their respective API endpoints.
The publishing workflow is done and handled by Claude AI, but posts are always in draft mode so I can review them in the Ghost Admin management interface before publishing. I need more work to finish this because now I have to make sure that on the next occasion, in a new Claude conversation, Claude will remember to use my n8n workflows and how I want the content converted. Another issue seems to be about the size of the request being sent to Ghost to create the draft post.
If I go back a few weeks, I barely knew how to use Claude Code or leverage webhooks and MCP servers meaningfully. Now I do, thanks to AI. I feel empowered by AI.
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When I get this from Claude AI, it’s time for either a break or to work on something else until the reset.
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My most “complex” n8n workflow so far. This workflow retrieves Tinylytics AI-generated insights for the day across all my websites and creates a meta-summarization for inclusion in today’s Craft Daily Note.
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My biggest challenge so far in building automation workflows in n8n is data manipulation (arrays, JSON, data bits extraction, etc.) It’s not fun at all, but when it works, it’s rewarding.
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My n8n exploration continues: now I have both an n8n MCP endpoint and an API endpoint enabled. I can talk to my n8n instance from Claude via either my MCP connection or an API. I can trigger an n8n workflow via the Claude AI MCP connection. Endless possibilities. 🤯
