Building a Personal Automation Engine w/ n8n & AI Integrations

Introduction: As a builder, I thrive on creating efficient, intelligent systems. My primary toolkit combines the visual workflow orchestration of n8n with custom Node.js code, containerization with Docker, and various AI models. This write-up showcases distinct projects where I've applied this toolkit to solve challenges ranging from community management to personal productivity.

• Orchestration & Hosting: A self-hosted n8n instance running in Docker. This provides a visual environment ideal for the rapid prototyping of internal APIs and complex workflows. The engine is designed for resource-efficiency and can be deployed anywhere from my local machine to a dedicated Raspberry Pi.

• Custom Backend Logic: While fully proficient in building production APIs from scratch with frameworks like Express.js, I strategically use n8n for this engine. Its visual nature dramatically accelerates the development of tools requiring complex, multi-service integrations. And it’s Node.js compatibility makes it easy to run custom JS logic.

• Platform Extension: I regularly push beyond n8n's out-of-the-box features by integrating powerful community-built nodes & configuring extra NPM modules that can be called within n8n, both of which are only available to self-hosted versions. A prime example is my work extending the platform's native Discord integration. By leveraging a community plugin, I overcame core limitations to monitor multiple servers and new channel types like Forums and Text-in-Voice. This process is detailed further in my Discord Automation Deep Dive project.

• AI Integration: A custom-built, model-agnostic gateway that routes requests to services like OpenRouter and specialized APIs like Novita AI. This centralizes API management and allows for flexible, model-agnostic AI features.

• Secure Remote Access: Expertise in using services like Cloudflare Tunnel to securely expose local endpoints to the public internet. This allows me to turn my local automation engine into a globally accessible micro-service for my projects, without the overhead of a traditional cloud deployment.

Context: For the Eight or Infinity community I co-founded, maintaining engagement and streamlining operations was a key challenge. I extended the server's functionality by integrating my automation engine.

• Challenge: How can we provide novel, engaging experiences and automate repetitive moderation without relying on generic, off-the-shelf bots?

Context: The modern job search is a project management challenge. My goal was to explore how automation and AI could transform this process from a chaotic spreadsheet into an intelligent, data-driven system.

Initial Prototype & Key Learnings: My first working prototype focused on automated filtering. The workflow would scrape job descriptions, use an LLM to analyze the tech stack, and then automatically filter opportunities against my core skill set. While functional, this approach taught me a crucial lesson: simple go/no-go filtering isn't enough. The real value is in gaining deeper, actionable insights on the best-fit opportunities.

The Strategic Pivot: Building for Insight, Not Just Speed Based on these learnings, I am evolving the project into a true Career CRM with AI-powered data enrichment. The new architecture, which is my current development focus, works as follows:

• Automated Ingestion: The system scrapes a job posting and creates a structured record in my Notion CRM.

• AI Analysis & Tagging: The LLM's task is now to analyze and tag the posting. It extracts the required tech stack (React, AWS), soft skills (team leadership, agile), and experience level, adding them as structured tags to the CRM record.

• Intelligent Search: This enriched data allows me to run complex queries on my own job pipeline, such as "Show me all Senior roles mentioning Node.js and PostgreSQL that don't mention Java."

The Result: This project demonstrates my ability to not only build a functional prototype but also to critically evaluate its strategic value and pivot toward a more sophisticated and powerful solution. It's a system designed for intelligent decision-making, not just automation for its own sake.

These projects demonstrate a consistent methodology: identifying operational bottlenecks and engineering robust, integrated solutions. My expertise lies in architecting the "connective tissue" between platforms, using automation and AI to augment human intelligence and unlock new efficiencies. Whether for managing a community or a complex personal project, I build systems that work.