Example: Scheduled Daily Report Workflow¶

[Schedule Trigger]
9 AM Daily
    ↓
[HTTP Request]
Fetch Metrics API
    ↓
[Code Node]
Format Report
    ↓
[Send Email]
Team Distribution

You: "Create a daily report workflow that runs at 9 AM, fetches data from https://api.example.com/metrics, and emails the results to team@company.com"

Claude: I'll create a scheduled workflow for your daily report.

[MCP tool call: create_workflow]
{
  "instance": "production",
  "name": "Daily Metrics Report",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "schedule_1",
      "name": "Schedule Trigger",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger",
      "typeVersion": 1.1,
      "position": [250, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "rule": {
          "interval": [
            {
              "field": "cronExpression",
              "expression": "0 9 * * *"
            }
          ]
        },
        "timezone": "America/New_York"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "http_1",
      "name": "Fetch Metrics",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.1,
      "position": [450, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "url": "https://api.example.com/metrics",
        "authentication": "none",
        "options": {
          "timeout": 10000
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "code_1",
      "name": "Format Report",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code",
      "typeVersion": 2,
      "position": [650, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "mode": "runOnceForAllItems",
        "jsCode": "const metrics = $input.all()[0].json;\n\nconst today = new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-US', {\n  weekday: 'long',\n  year: 'numeric',\n  month: 'long',\n  day: 'numeric'\n});\n\nconst report = `\n📊 Daily Metrics Report - ${today}\n${'='.repeat(60)}\n\n👥 USERS\n   Total Users:        ${metrics.users.toLocaleString()}\n   New Today:          ${metrics.newUsers.toLocaleString()}\n   Active Sessions:    ${metrics.activeSessions.toLocaleString()}\n\n💰 REVENUE\n   Today's Revenue:    $${metrics.revenue.toLocaleString('en-US', { minimumFractionDigits: 2 })}\n   Monthly Total:      $${metrics.monthlyRevenue.toLocaleString('en-US', { minimumFractionDigits: 2 })}\n   Target Progress:    ${((metrics.revenue / metrics.target) * 100).toFixed(1)}%\n\n🏆 TOP PRODUCTS\n${metrics.topProducts.map((p, i) => \n  `   ${i + 1}. ${p.name.padEnd(30)} $${p.sales.toLocaleString()}`\n).join('\\n')}\n\n${'='.repeat(60)}\nGenerated: ${new Date().toISOString()}\n`;\n\nreturn [{ json: { report, subject: `Daily Metrics - ${today}` } }];"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "email_1",
      "name": "Send Email",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.emailSend",
      "typeVersion": 2,
      "position": [850, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "fromEmail": "reports@company.com",
        "toEmail": "team@company.com",
        "subject": "={{ $json.subject }}",
        "emailType": "text",
        "message": "={{ $json.report }}"
      },
      "credentials": {
        "smtp": {
          "id": "1",
          "name": "Company SMTP"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {
    "Schedule Trigger": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "Fetch Metrics", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    },
    "Fetch Metrics": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "Format Report", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    },
    "Format Report": {
      "main": [[{ "node": "Send Email", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]]
    }
  },
  "active": false
}

✅ Workflow "Daily Metrics Report" created successfully

Details:
- ID: 456
- Schedule: Daily at 9:00 AM EST
- Status: Inactive (test before activating)
- Nodes: 4 (Schedule, HTTP, Code, Email)

IMPORTANT: Test manually before activating!

You: "How do I test this workflow before activating it?"

Claude: Great question! Here's how to test schedule-based workflows:

**Method 1: Manual Test in n8n UI (Recommended)**
1. Open n8n UI: https://your-n8n.cloud
2. Navigate to workflow "Daily Metrics Report"
3. Click "Test Workflow" button (top right)
4. Click "Execute Workflow"
5. Review results in execution panel

**Method 2: Temporarily Add Manual Trigger**
Ask me to add a manual trigger for testing:
"Add a manual trigger to workflow 456 for testing purposes"

**Method 3: Change Schedule to Run Soon**
Temporarily change schedule to run in 5 minutes:
"Update workflow 456 schedule to run at [current_time + 5 minutes]"

I recommend Method 1 for quickest testing.

From: reports@company.com
To: team@company.com
Subject: Daily Metrics - Wednesday, January 15, 2025

📊 Daily Metrics Report - Wednesday, January 15, 2025
============================================================

👥 USERS
   Total Users:        15,432
   New Today:          127
   Active Sessions:    1,245

💰 REVENUE
   Today's Revenue:    $12,450.75
   Monthly Total:      $187,234.50
   Target Progress:    93.6%

🏆 TOP PRODUCTS
   1. Premium Plan                      $5,200
   2. Starter Plan                      $3,100
   3. Enterprise License                $2,800

============================================================
Generated: 2025-01-15T09:00:23.456Z

You: "The test worked perfectly! Activate workflow 456 in production."

Claude: Excellent! I'll activate the daily report workflow.

[MCP tool call: activate_workflow]
{
  "instance": "production",
  "id": "456"
}

✅ Workflow activated successfully

Your Daily Metrics Report will now run automatically every day at 9:00 AM EST.

**Next Execution:** Tomorrow at 09:00:00 EST
**Recipients:** team@company.com
**Status:** Active ✅

Would you like me to:
1. Set up execution monitoring?
2. Add error notifications?
3. Create a backup recipient list?

You: "Change workflow 456 to run at 6 AM instead of 9 AM"

Claude: I'll update the schedule to 6:00 AM.

[Updates cron expression from "0 9 * * *" to "0 6 * * *"]

✅ Schedule updated to 6:00 AM daily

You: "Update workflow 456 timezone to Pacific Time (PT)"

Claude: I'll change the timezone to America/Los_Angeles (PT).

[Updates timezone parameter]

✅ Timezone changed to Pacific Time
Next execution: Tomorrow at 09:00:00 PST

You: "Add sarah@company.com and john@company.com to the recipient list"

Claude: I'll update the email recipients.

[Updates toEmail parameter to "team@company.com, sarah@company.com, john@company.com"]

✅ Email recipients updated
Now sending to: team@company.com, sarah@company.com, john@company.com

You: "Check what timezone workflow 456 is using"

Claude: [Gets workflow details]

Current timezone: UTC
9:00 AM UTC = 4:00 AM EST

Would you like me to change it to America/New_York (EST)?

You: "Why isn't workflow 456 sending emails? Show me the latest execution."

Claude: [Gets execution details]

Execution shows:
- HTTP Request: ✅ Success
- Format Report: ✅ Success
- Send Email: ❌ Failed - "Authentication failed"

Issue: SMTP credentials invalid or expired.

Fix:
1. Open n8n UI → Settings → Credentials
2. Test SMTP credential
3. Update if needed
4. Retry workflow execution

You: "Add error handling to workflow 456 that sends a Slack alert if the API fails"

Claude: I'll add error handling with Slack notifications.

[Adds error trigger node and Slack notification]

✅ Error handling added
- On HTTP Request failure → Send Slack alert to #ops-alerts
- Include error details and timestamp
- Workflow continues to attempt tomorrow

You: "Show me execution history for workflow 456 over the last 7 days"

Claude: I'll retrieve the execution history.

[MCP tool call: list_executions with time filter]

Last 7 days execution summary:
- Total executions: 7
- Successful: 6 ✅
- Failed: 1 ❌
- Average duration: 2.3 seconds

Failed execution:
- Date: Jan 12, 2025
- Error: API timeout
- Status: Resolved (API was temporarily down)

You: "Add a check that alerts me if the workflow hasn't run in 25 hours"

Claude: I'll create a monitoring workflow that checks execution status.

[Creates separate monitoring workflow]

✅ Monitoring workflow created
- Checks every hour if Daily Metrics Report ran in last 25 hours
- Sends alert if missing
- Notifies: your-email@company.com