The n8n Masterclass

Dylan Watkins - n8n

Welcome to The n8n Masterclass. I’m Dylan Watkins. Each week we break down real business wins using n8n and AI automation. You’ll learn what worked, why it worked, and what broke along the way. Founders, automation experts, and AI agencies share how they use n8n to simplify operations, scale delivery, and move faster without adding more people. The n8n Masterclass is not about tutorials or tech jargon. It focuses on the real business side of automation, the frameworks, decision patterns, and creative problem solving that turn workflows into results. You’ll leave every episode with one principle, one pattern, and one action you can apply this week to grow your business, reduce manual work, and unlock the potential of automation. If you’re building a business that runs on smart systems, AI, and no-code tools, this is your playbook for scaling with n8n. Follow The n8n Masterclass and start using automation as your competitive edge.

  1. 9 July

    The Creator of n8n's MCP Shows You How to Actually Use It (3 Live Builds)

    Milorad, n8n's MCP creator, joins the podcast to show you exactly how to get more out of the n8n instance-level MCP server, walking through three real builds from scratch, live on screen. The episode is structured as a progressive masterclass: Level 1 is a deterministic form submission workflow with a data table and email notification, Level 2 is an AI agent that generates LinkedIn posts and can be triggered straight from your phone, and Level 3 is a multi-agent orchestration system where two models (Claude and GPT) independently review the same content and a third orchestrator merges their findings. Along the way, they dig into the real reasons to pair n8n with an LLM client, including credential management, workflow observability, and the security tradeoffs baked into the MCP design. There's also a practical discussion on why iterating step by step beats trying to one-shot complex automations. The conversation closes with a look at what's coming next, including chaining n8n MCP with third-party MCP servers, and an honest preview of what's still in development. 🎙 Chapters: 00:00 - What We're Building Today 00:20 - Three Levels of MCP Mastery 01:00 - Level 1: Building a Workflow via Chat 02:19 - Creating Data Tables and Form Triggers 08:20 - Adding Email Notifications to the Workflow 08:55 - Why Use n8n Alongside Claude 16:40 - Level 1 Complete: What You Can Do Now 17:26 - Level 2: Building an AI LinkedIn Post Agent 22:37 - Triggering Workflows From Your Phone 30:00 - Level 2 Wrap-Up and Human-in-the-Loop 30:01 - Security, Permissions, and Community Nodes 44:33 - Level 3: Multi-Agent Orchestration 44:37 - Two Models Reviewing the Same Content 42:00 - Building Iteratively vs. One-Shotting 44:31 - Level 3 in Action 42:01 - Connecting n8n MCP to Other MCP Servers 44:36 - Preview Status and What's Coming Next Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  2. 1 July

    I Automated My Home Security With n8n (Free Workflows Inside)

    If you want this home security setup, go here: https://go.n8n.io/buddy You get the free step-by-step guide and Buddy's self-hosted cyber lab. Your home network is being probed right now, and most people have no idea. Buddy, a cybersecurity professional and solutions engineer at n8n, built two automation workflows that change that. In this episode, Buddy walks through how to use n8n to automatically scan incoming Gmail for phishing links using VirusTotal, and how to monitor your firewall for blocked threats, enriching each alert with VirusTotal, URLScan, and MISP in under 10 seconds. These workflows work for homeowners with a smart device setup and for small businesses protecting employee inboxes alike. Buddy covers phishing detection, firewall threat enrichment, lateral movement, ransomware, prompt injection risks, and personal data exposure from breaches like National Public Data. The conversation ends with a practical cybersecurity checklist: password managers, app-based two-factor authentication, social media verification, and keeping software updated. Links to the workflows, the GitHub repo, a setup guide, and a hardware recommendation are all below. 🎙 Chapters: 00:00 - Intro: What This Episode Covers 01:48 - Phishing Email Workflow Demo 05:50 - What Is VirusTotal? 07:00 - Auto-Tagging Confirmed Phishing in Gmail 09:27 - Real-World Phishing Attack Stories 14:00 - Lateral Movement and Ransomware Explained 16:08 - Firewall Monitoring Workflow and Ubiquiti Setup 20:00 - Geo-Blocking and Incoming Connection Threats 21:44 - URLScan, MISP, and Threat Enrichment 27:53 - Full Workflow Walkthrough: Soup to Nuts 37:07 - Dark Web Data Exposure and Identity Theft 43:41 - Why Use n8n for Cybersecurity Automation 46:23 - AI Agents, Prompt Injection, and Future Threats 48:47 - Personal Security Checklist and Best Practices 52:11 - Closing Thoughts and Next Steps Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  3. 1 July

    Mythos & Fable Can Weaponize Cyberattacks. This n8n System Fights Back

    Get the open-source incident response workflow here: https://go.n8n.io/incident-response Anthropic's Mythos AI just found a 27-year-old security bug in OpenBSD that no human ever caught. Days later the US government pulled both Mythos 5 and the public Fable 5 model, worried that same power could be weaponized into cyberattacks. The threat is no longer theoretical, and if your defense isn't automated too, you're already behind. Dylan sits down with Viraj, a former n8n team member turned forward-deployed engineer, who now helps enterprise companies build AI-powered security systems. They walk through a live demo of an open-source cybersecurity workflow built with n8n and backed by real incident data. The conversation covers how to bring AI into SecOps without letting it run wild, why historical incident data and playbooks matter more than the model you choose, and how Anthropic's Mythos is changing the threat landscape by chaining multiple vulnerabilities in a single attack. They also dig into real-world social engineering scams, phishing tactics, and why good data hygiene is the unsexy foundation that makes any AI system actually work. The bigger takeaway: the models will keep getting smarter, but the companies (and individuals) who win are the ones with clean data, solid playbooks, and a workflow harness that can plug in whatever model comes next. This is a practical blueprint for fighting AI-powered threats with your own AI-powered defense. 🎙 Chapters: 00:00 - AI Found a 27-Year-Old Bug 00:37 - What the Demo Covers 02:43 - Test Incidents, Playbooks & Data 06:11 - Live Phishing Workflow Demo 07:08 - Three Branches of Analysis 09:35 - Threat Intelligence Explained 12:31 - Mythos and Zero-Day Threats 15:20 - Why Data Hygiene Matters 16:36 - Workflow Results Walkthrough 21:07 - Social Engineering and Scams 25:07 - Actionable Remediation Steps 30:53 - Data Ingestion for Companies 34:50 - Forward-Deployed Engineering 38:51 - Local Models and Personal Security 40:41 - Where to Find Viraj Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  4. 11 June

    How n8n solved Cowork’s Biggest Pain

    Most people hear about Claude's Cowork features and wonder how it actually fits into a real automation stack. This episode is the answer: a full walkthrough of connecting Claude Cowork to n8n, building a production-ready email classifier from scratch, and the token-saving tricks that make it all sustainable. Ryan Nolan, who runs a data science YouTube channel and deploys AI automations at his day job, joins the n8n podcast to share his exact playbook for pairing these two tools. The conversation covers setting up the n8n connector in under 60 seconds, calling external APIs through n8n workflows, building an email classifier with human-in-the-loop approval and error handling, and the new Google sign-in flow that eliminates the painful credential setup process. They also dig into why Claude's computer control is too slow for real scraping, and how n8n workflows are a better fit. On the enterprise side, Ryan explains why compliance teams need structured execution logs (not just Cowork skill histories), how to roll out AI automation department by department, and the hackathon where a team with zero n8n experience built a driver's license verification workflow in two days. 🎙 Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and episode overview 02:23 - Connecting n8n to Claude Cowork 04:21 - Calling APIs from Cowork via n8n 10:27 - Building an email classifier workflow 14:51 - Tips for prompting and iterating 13:42 - Compliance and audit logging 24:10 - Saving tokens with n8n workflows 32:31 - Enterprise security and skills vs workflows 36:48 - Reviewing the built workflow 39:41 - Quick Google credential setup 42:10 - Execution history and debugging 44:01 - The hackathon story 46:45 - Advice for getting started 51:43 - Running with David Goggins Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  5. 26 May

    How a 1,000-Person Company Actually Uses n8n with Sahar Rahmani

    🎁 Link to Enterprise Playbook 👉 https://go.n8n.io/n8n-enterprise-playbook Most companies trying to roll out AI get stuck at five or ten workflows. Fullscript, a health tech company with over a thousand employees, built more than 1,500 in under a year (with over a hundred in production) and saved tens of thousands of hours doing it. Sahar Rahmani is the Director of Internal AI at Fullscript. She walks through exactly how they went from engineering-bottlenecked automation requests to company-wide self-service AI adoption using n8n. The conversation covers their hackathon launch strategy, the template library and global credentials trick that removed barriers for non-technical teams, and the highest-value workflows they built across sales, finance, legal, and customer support. If you're looking for a practical enterprise AI automation playbook, this is it. Sahar also shares how they shifted their messaging from "AI first" to "people first, AI powered," and why that cultural reframe was the key to getting real buy-in across every department. 🎙 Chapters: 00:00 - Intro and Fullscript's AI results 02:12 - The state of automation before n8n 03:56 - Workshops, templates, and credentials 06:33 - Why the templates actually worked 09:44 - The company-wide AI hackathon 13:31 - Hackathon advice: start small 20:05 - Sales lead scoring automation 24:37 - ROI: tens of thousands of hours saved 27:20 - Finance invoice reconciliation 32:48 - The Director of Internal AI role 33:48 - Overcoming employee resistance to AI 38:00 - Customer support call automation 42:22 - Legal contract review with local AI 44:56 - Keeping momentum after launch 48:42 - Final advice and where to find Sahar Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  6. 20 May

    Why n8n + Lovable Is Replacing Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack with Olof Hedin

    What if AI could let anyone  (not just engineers) build real software? In this impromptu podcast recorded live outside Google Next, Olof Hedin of Lovable sits down with the n8n team to explore how vibe coding is democratizing software creation and reshaping entire industries. Olof shares the origin story of Lovable, from a viral GitHub prototype to one of the fastest-growing companies of all time. The conversation dives into how non-technical users (from nurses at HCA Healthcare to a Brazilian entrepreneur who built a $500K safety app) are building production-ready software with simple prompts.  Olof breaks down the n8n and Lovable MCP partnership, the enterprise adoption playbook including customers like NVIDIA with the emerging tech stack of AI agents, workflow automation, and no-code front ends that's threatening legacy software giants like SAP and Salesforce.  They also discuss what the future holds for solo founders, the one-person billion-dollar company, and the security risks of giving AI agents too much power. 🎙 Chapters: 00:00 - Highlights & Teaser 00:40 - Live From Google Next 02:54 - The Origin Story of Lovable 04:17 - Internal Tools & Vibe Coding 06:26 - The n8n x Lovable Partnership 09:22 - Breaking Down Data Silos 14:54 - Nurses Vibe Coding at HCA 16:27 - The $500K Safety App From Brazil 23:25 - What Makes Lovable Different 26:24 - Enterprise Adoption Barriers 31:28 - The One-Person Billion-Dollar Company 34:54 - Advice for Aspiring Builders 40:15 - Hopes, Fears & AI Security 42:00 - Closing Thoughts Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  7. 11 May

    n8n Desk: The Open Source Claude Desktop That Runs on top of n8n's new MCP with Marcel Claus-Ahrens

    🔗 n8n Desk (GitHub): https://go.n8n.io/n8ndesk-github 🔗 n8n Desk (Website): https://go.n8n.io/n8ndesk-website What if you could use Claude Code to build n8n workflows and never worry about it running destructive code on your machine? In this episode, Marcel joins the show to demo two things: n8n's brand new official MCP server (currently in beta), which lets AI agents build workflows for the first time, not just run them. And then his own open source project, n8n Desk: a free desktop app that looks and feels like Claude Desktop, but routes all code execution through n8n instead of your local machine. That means encrypted credentials, a full audit trail, support for any AI model (including local ones), and role-based access for enterprise teams. We also get into vibe flowing, context engineering, and why n8n is actually easier to debug than AI-generated code. Timestamps 0:00 - Claude Code destructive actions story 1:40 - Guest intro & today's topics 1:45 - New ways to build n8n workflows 4:05 - Connecting n8n MCP to Claude Code 5:01 - Old MCP vs. new MCP 5:25 - New MCP builds workflows 5:33 - Any agent can create workflows 6:47 - What is "vibe flowing"? 7:41 - Why n8n is easier to debug 11:32 - AI fatigue & reclaiming your time 11:37 - Setting up the n8n MCP connector 12:50 - Building an IT support buddy agent 13:22 - Vibe coding vs. context engineering 15:14 - Agent creates workflow inside n8n 17:31 - Why the first attempt failed 17:35 - MCP ships built-in reference skills 19:22 - Community MCP & combining skill stores 20:43 - Custom skill stores & plugins 23:13 - Skills as .md files explained 24:21 - Latest & greatest, expect improvements 24:29 - Marcel's side project teaser 24:42 - The problem with Claude Desktop 28:24 - Introducing n8n Desk 28:30 - Run any AI model locally 30:34 - Cowork tab: local files via n8n 37:20 - Chat Hub: talk to n8n agents 38:03 - Kelly calendar agent live demo 42:20 - Free & open source release plans podscan_22hDOpmUwVdA34BDKTOUH48A6pgDQE93 Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

  8. 14 Apr

    Automate the boring work of HR with n8n (free template) with Paul Karrmann

    Most HR teams are still setting up Slack, email, and Jira accounts by hand every time someone new joins. And when requests come in from three different places at once? Someone has to manually sort through all of it. In this episode, I sit down with Paul Karrmann — an automation consultant based in Germany who built two n8n workflows that fix both of these problems. 🔗 Free HR Template: https://go.n8n.io/hr-template 🔗 Personio Community Node: https://go.n8n.io/personio-npm ────────────────────────── WHAT WE COVER Workflow #1 — Automated Employee Onboarding The moment someone joins the company, this agent automatically provisions every account (Slack, Jira, door access, and more) and sends a welcome message. Zero manual work. Workflow #2 — HR Request Triage No matter where a request comes in — Slack, Gmail, WhatsApp, or an online form — this workflow normalizes it, deduplicates it, scores it using the Eisenhower Matrix, logs it to Notion or Jira, and only alerts you when something is genuinely urgent. We also go deep on the Personio community node Paul built for n8n, which makes it easy to connect Europe's most widely used HR system to your automation stack. ────────────────────────── TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 1:21 - Welcome & overview of AI in HR automation 1:57 - Demo: Personio trigger node walkthrough 2:49 - The #1 HR pain point: employee onboarding 3:15 - How the onboarding agent works 3:56 - Setting up Slack notifications & welcome messages 8:06 - Client intake: mapping a company's tool stack 9:43 - On-prem deployments: hospitals & Docker environments 12:54 - HR Triage Workflow: handling requests from Slack, Gmail, WhatsApp 13:19 - Universal intake normalizer explained 14:16 - Eisenhower Matrix for request prioritization 15:14 - Full Eisenhower model breakdown 23:03 - Building the Personio community node 24:04 - Why Paul built it (and where to get it) 25:39 - How to connect with Paul 26:23 - Enterprise-grade automation vs. vibe coding ────────────────────────── #n8n #WorkflowAutomation #HRAutomation #NoCode Get 30% Off n8n Cloud Starter or Pro Plans! Want to get started with n8n? Visit n8n.io/pricing and use code 2025-N8N-PODCAST-729C416E at checkout for 30% off your first month or year.

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Trailer

About

Welcome to The n8n Masterclass. I’m Dylan Watkins. Each week we break down real business wins using n8n and AI automation. You’ll learn what worked, why it worked, and what broke along the way. Founders, automation experts, and AI agencies share how they use n8n to simplify operations, scale delivery, and move faster without adding more people. The n8n Masterclass is not about tutorials or tech jargon. It focuses on the real business side of automation, the frameworks, decision patterns, and creative problem solving that turn workflows into results. You’ll leave every episode with one principle, one pattern, and one action you can apply this week to grow your business, reduce manual work, and unlock the potential of automation. If you’re building a business that runs on smart systems, AI, and no-code tools, this is your playbook for scaling with n8n. Follow The n8n Masterclass and start using automation as your competitive edge.

Information

  • Creator
    Dylan Watkins - n8n
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The n8n Masterclass
  • Show Website
    The n8n Masterclass