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What n8n is
n8n describes itself as a fair-code licensed workflow automation tool that combines AI capabilities with business process automation. It is a self-hostable workflow engine with a visual editor.
The model is small and consistent: a workflow is a collection of nodes; a node fetches, sends, or processes data, or defines flow control; a trigger node starts the workflow; credentials hold authentication; expressions populate parameters dynamically with JavaScript.
Its AI nodes implement LangChain's JavaScript framework, modelled as cluster nodes: a root node such as AI Agent, extended by sub-nodes for the language model, memory, tools, and retrievers.
What it is normally used for
How n8n is used generally, before Synedrix OS enters the picture.
- Connecting systems that do not talk to each other, with credentials and retries handled by the engine rather than by hand-written scripts
- Exposing a workflow over a webhook so other systems can call it as an API endpoint
- Scheduled and event-driven automation, with time-based or webhook triggers as the entry point
- Building AI agent chat systems from a model, memory, and tool sub-nodes
What it owns, and what it does not
Every platform in the stack has a non-overlapping responsibility. The boundary is as much a part of the design as the capability.
Owns
- Workflow execution and the execution graph for every domain-pack workflow
- Agent invocation routing
- Trigger and action composition
- Retry and timeout management
- Approval routing
- Sub-workflow calls
Does not own
- Stateful, cyclic, and multi-agent reasoning
- → LangGraph (Layer 4)
- Policy decisions
- → Policy Guard (os-agt-002)
- Canonical business state
- → Supabase PG17 (Layer 7)
- LLM traces, prompts, evaluations
- → Langfuse (Layer 10)
Why n8n
It is a workflow engine, not an agent framework
n8n's job is to run steps in order and retry them if they fail, not to make decisions. That is intentionally simple and easy to follow. Keeping reasoning in a separate layer is a deliberate decision, recorded in ADR-OS-001.
Self-hostable in full
n8n's free Community edition includes almost every feature, with no time limit and no paid licence required: exactly what's needed to run n8n self-hosted, including in an air-gapped deployment.
It can be isolated
n8n provides a documented way to stop an instance from ever contacting n8n's own servers. For an air-gapped deployment, that is a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
Humans can see exactly what ran
A governed system needs to let people see what actually happened. n8n's visual canvas and execution history give the orchestration layer that view.
Licence position
n8n questions, answered
Short, citable answers drawn from this page.
What role does n8n play in Synedrix OS?
n8n (Workflow kernel) is mapped to Layer 3: Orchestration in Synedrix OS. The orchestration kernel. It sequences and retries; it does not reason.
What does n8n own in Synedrix OS?
n8n owns: Workflow execution and the execution graph for every domain-pack workflow; Agent invocation routing; Trigger and action composition; Retry and timeout management; Approval routing; Sub-workflow calls.
What does n8n not own in Synedrix OS?
n8n does not own: Stateful, cyclic, and multi-agent reasoning (owned by LangGraph (Layer 4)); Policy decisions (owned by Policy Guard (os-agt-002)); Canonical business state (owned by Supabase PG17 (Layer 7)); LLM traces, prompts, evaluations (owned by Langfuse (Layer 10)).
What licence is n8n under?
n8n is released under Sustainable Use License v1.0 (fair-code). n8n is fair-code, not open source. Use is limited to internal business purposes; redistribution is permitted only free of charge for non-commercial purposes. Files marked .ee require a separate n8n Enterprise License.
The full reference page, with the operating model, deployment detail, and links to every canonical specification this platform touches, lives in the documentation repository, which is private while the platform is being built.