Build an n8n Workflow with Claude

In Episode 17 (October 17, 2025), Jordan asked Claude, live, to build an n8n workflow that emails podcast hosts and invites them onto Built This Week. He downloaded the JSON Claude produced, imported it into n8n, and had the whole workflow structure on screen in about a minute. It wasn't connected to any accounts yet; that part takes longer.

Why we built it

We had started using n8n at Jordan and Sam's company, Ryz Labs, and Sam's point was that "low code" still has a learning curve. It's daunting when you start. Our shortcut is to have Claude draft the workflow first.

But we've found a way to use Claude to build out, you know, 90% of really any automation you could think of and then just kinda tie it all together at the end.

— Sam Nadler, Episode 17

Just before this, Jordan had walked through a finished n8n workflow, our sales outreach workflow for Russell 2000 CEOs. This demo showed how to get a new one started from nothing.

The stack

• Claude: wrote the workflow as n8n-compatible JSON from a short prompt.
• n8n: the workflow platform. Jordan describes it as similar to Zapier and Make, with agentic workflows that others are now copying, and connectors for Gmail, Google Sheets, Airtable and APIs like Perplexity and ChatGPT.

How we built it, step by step

1. Prompt Claude. Jordan's prompt: build an n8n workflow that automates outbound outreach to podcast hosts asking them to be on Built This Week. He mentioned Perplexity as one way to research podcasts but otherwise gave few instructions.
2. Download the JSON. Claude first returned instructions, then the JSON file.
3. Create a new workflow in n8n and import from file.
4. Review the nodes. The import produced a schedule or manual trigger, a step to get podcast leads, filtering, data prep, fetching each podcast's website, generating an email, parsing the email content, and updates.

So now I'll just take the downloaded workflow that I just got out of Claude, and boom, there we go.

— Jordan Metzner, Episode 17

How it turned out

The structure was done in seconds. Sam was clear it isn't the final version, but called it "pretty good," and said this is how we built several workflows in a couple of weeks. We didn't run this one on air, and the episode didn't show it sending a real email.

What we'd do differently

Budget time for the last step. Sam said at 15:34 that the last 10%, connecting it all, "can be at times challenging": credentials, accounts and a real source of podcast leads all have to be added by hand. Jordan also tried OpenAI's agent workflow tool and found it "very, very rudimentary" next to n8n at the time. For model choice, see ChatGPT vs Claude.

FAQ

Can Claude build n8n workflows?

Yes. Jordan asked Claude to build an n8n workflow for podcast guest outreach, and it produced a JSON file that imported into n8n with the full node structure. Sam's estimate is that Claude gets you about 90% of the way.

How do you import a Claude-generated workflow into n8n?

Download the JSON from Claude, create a new workflow in n8n, choose import from file, and select the JSON. The nodes appear on the canvas right away.

What's left to do after Claude generates the n8n JSON?

Connecting everything: credentials, accounts and any data sources. Sam called that last 10% 'at times challenging.' The episode didn't show this workflow running end to end.

Is the ChatGPT agent workflow tool as good as n8n?

Not in Jordan's view at the time (October 2025). He called OpenAI's agent workflow tool very rudimentary and said it didn't have as many features as n8n.