n8n Workflow Automation

n8n is the orchestration engine that connects every external data source to the PostgreSQL database, runs AI enrichment pipelines, delivers notifications, and executes automated actions. It is the glue between the data layer and everything else.

Version: 2.14.2 Container: chris-os-n8n Total workflows: 80 (78 active, 2 inactive) External access: https://n8n.ataraxis.cloud (Authelia SSO) MCP access: Dedicated Cloudflare Tunnel MCP endpoint

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Workflow Categories

Data Ingestion (18 active, 1 inactive)

Workflows that pull external data into PostgreSQL.

Workflow	Trigger	Source
Gmail: Push Notification Receiver	Webhook (Pub/Sub)	Gmail API
Calendar: Push Notification Receiver	Webhook (Pub/Sub)	Google Calendar API
iMessage: BlueBubbles Webhook Receiver	Webhook	BlueBubbles server (local)
WhatsApp: WAHA Webhook Receiver	Webhook	WAHA server (local)
Discord Classifier Pipeline	Webhook	Discord bridge
Health Auto Export Ingestion	Webhook	iOS Health Auto Export app
HA: Event Receiver	Webhook	Home Assistant (iCloud3, state changes)
HA: Voice Interaction Receiver	Webhook	Home Assistant voice pipeline
Peak State: Real-Time Signals	Webhook	Health Auto Export / HA
Peak State: Nightly Signals	Schedule + Webhook	Aggregated from health tables
Peak State: Weekly Signals	Schedule + Webhook	Aggregated from health tables
Peak State: Signal Extraction	Schedule + Webhook	health_records, ha.events
Brewer’s Friend Sync	Schedule + Webhook	Brewer’s Friend API
Memory Bridge: Amazon Orders Sync	Schedule	Postgres / Amazon order tables
Spotify: Daily Play Sync	Schedule + Webhook	Spotify API
UniFi: Device & Client Sync	Schedule (30s)	UniFi controller API
Weather Daily Sync	Schedule (6 AM)	Open-Meteo API
Weather: Fetch & Store	Schedule	Open-Meteo + NWS fallback
GitHub Webhook Sync	Webhook	GitHub webhooks
Monarch Money: Daily Transaction Sync	Schedule	Monarch Money API (INACTIVE)

Memory / AI (21 workflows)

Workflows that build, maintain, and query the knowledge graph and memory server.

Workflow	Schedule	Function
Memory: Auto-Store via MCP	Webhook	Receive and forward memory payloads to MCP server
Memory: Daily Maintenance	Schedule (4 AM)	Decay, prune, index optimization
Memory: Enhanced Maintenance	Schedule + Webhook	Embedding refresh, cache invalidation
Memory: TTL Expired Cleanup	Schedule (2:30 AM)	Delete expired episode-type entries
Memory: Nightly Contradiction Detection	Schedule (11 PM)	Scan for contradictions across memory
Memory: Stale Decision Scanner (Weekly)	Schedule (Mon 6 AM)	Flag old unactioned decisions
Memory: Weekly Pattern Analysis	Schedule + Webhook	Surface behavioral patterns
Entity Extraction: Real-Time (pg_notify)	pg_notify	Real-time entity extraction from new messages
Entity Extraction v2: Knowledge Graph Builder	Schedule + Webhook	Batch entity extraction
Entity Auto-Tagger	Schedule	Auto-tag untagged entities
Entity Consolidation Weekly	Schedule (Sun noon)	Merge duplicate entities
Entity Relationship Inference	Schedule + Webhook	Infer entity graph edges
Aegis: Fact Verification	Schedule + Webhook	Verify claims in claim_registry
Aegis: Synthesis Quality Gate	Schedule + Manual	Score AI synthesis outputs
Heart Demon: Claim Verification	Schedule + Webhook	Adversarial claim stress-testing
Identity Crystallization: Aegis Phase 4d	Schedule + Webhook	Crystallize identity signals
Counter-Narrative Generator	Schedule + Webhook	Generate cognitive blind-spot challenges
Pattern Weaving: Cross-Domain Synthesis	Schedule + Webhook	Cross-domain pattern synthesis
Cornerstone Signal Extraction	Schedule	Extract Cornerstone Discovery signals
Cornerstone: Answer Processor	Webhook	Process Cornerstone question answers
Cornerstone: Weekly Synthesis	Schedule + Manual	Weekly identity narrative
Lesson Matcher: Daily Trigger Evaluation	Schedule	Surface relevant past lessons
Time Insights: Daily Activity Summary	Schedule + Manual	Daily summary from time_blocks

Monitoring (11 workflows)

Workflows that observe system health and fire alerts.

Workflow	Schedule	What It Watches
Global: Error Notification	n8n error trigger	All n8n workflow failures
Alerts: Proactive Monitor	Schedule + Manual	GitHub issues, internal state conditions
Backup Freshness Monitor	Schedule	Backup timestamps in Postgres
Data Freshness Monitor	Schedule	Ingestion recency across all pipeline tables
Peak State: Signal Staleness Alert	Schedule + Manual	Peak State update recency
GLaDOS: Framework Telemetry Receiver	Webhook	GLaDOS hook events
Nightwatch: Job Alerting	Webhook	nightwatch job completion/failure
Reportcard Snapshot (Automated)	Every 15 min	System health scores
System State: Canary Query Checker	Schedule	config_registry canary queries
System State: Collector	Schedule	Container health, service endpoints, DB row counts
System State: Health Checks	Schedule	HA, NAS, atlas, nightwatch, Loki, Grafana

Communication (9 workflows)

Workflows that generate and deliver human-facing outputs.

Workflow	Schedule	Output
Morning Briefing	Schedule (7 AM) + Manual + Webhook	Morning briefing document in Postgres
Morning Briefing Push	Schedule (6:15 AM PT) + Manual	Pushover / PWA push notification
Morning Council: Data Gather & Synthesis	Schedule (3:45 AM)	Pre-synthesized Council data
Session: Haiku Summarization	Webhook	Session summary in session_summaries
Daily Summary Generation	Schedule (10 PM)	Daily narrative in documents
Health Nudge Triggers	Schedule (9:30 AM)	Pushover health nudge notifications
GitHub: Discord Notifier	Webhook	Claude-formatted summary to Discord
M: Conversation Handler	Webhook	M voice persona conversation responses
Therapy: Session Prep Generator	Schedule + Manual + Webhook	Therapy prep document (Tier 2 data only)

Automation (9 workflows)

Workflows that perform actions in response to user or system requests.

Workflow	Trigger	Action
Backlog: Natural Language Issue Creator	Webhook	Parse NL text -> GitHub issue -> project board
Assistant: Write-Back Actions	Webhook	Apply dashboard write-backs to Postgres
Calendar: Auto-Manage from Emails	Webhook	Create/update calendar events from classified emails
Council: Deliberation Engine	Webhook + Manual	Run multi-perspective Council deliberation
Dispatch: Action Webhook Receiver	Webhook	Execute commands on infrastructure hosts
Document: Create Document	Webhook	Create document in documents table
Facility Intercom: Command Handler	Schedule	Route intercom commands to facility subsystems
Review Queue: Action Handler	Webhook	Process review queue actions from dashboard
Cornerstone: Question Delivery	Schedule + Manual	Deliver Cornerstone questions to dashboard

Maintenance (7 workflows)

Workflows that keep data and infrastructure clean.

Workflow	Schedule	Function
Google: Push Watch Renewal	Every 4h	Renew Gmail + Calendar Pub/Sub subscriptions
GitHub: Project Board Sync	Schedule + Manual	Sync Projects V2 state to Postgres
Maintenance: Matview Refresh	Multiple schedules (5 AM+)	Refresh all PostgreSQL materialized views
Priority Score Refresh	Schedule (3:15 AM)	Recalculate issue priority scores
Relationship Score Refresh	Schedule + Manual	Recalculate contact relationship health scores
Document Staleness Scanner	Schedule	Flag stale/unreviewed documents
Email: Unsubscribe Scanner	Schedule + Manual	Queue unsubscribe candidates for review

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Key Workflow Chains

Morning Pipeline

The morning briefing is assembled from pre-gathered data to keep the 7 AM generation fast.

3:15 AM  Priority Score Refresh
3:45 AM  Morning Council: Data Gather & Synthesis
5:00 AM  Maintenance: Matview Refresh
6:00 AM  Weather Daily Sync
6:15 AM  Morning Briefing Push (triggers generation + sends notification)
7:00 AM  Morning Briefing (reads pre-assembled Council data + daily summary)

Gmail Push Pipeline

Gmail (Pub/Sub) -> Gmail: Push Notification Receiver
  -> writes: messages table
  -> Calendar: Auto-Manage from Emails  (if calendar-type classification)

Entity Extraction Pipeline

INSERT on messages / social_messages
  -> pg_notify trigger
  -> Entity Extraction: Real-Time (pg_notify)
  -> writes: entities, entity_relations

Entity Extraction v2 (batch, scheduled)
  -> Entity Auto-Tagger
  -> Entity Consolidation Weekly (dedup pass)
  -> Entity Relationship Inference (edge inference)

Health Ingestion Pipeline

iOS Health Auto Export -> Health Auto Export Ingestion
  -> writes: health_records
  -> Peak State: Real-Time Signals
    -> Peak State: Signal Extraction
      -> Peak State: Nightly Signals
      -> Peak State: Weekly Signals

Aegis / Memory Pipeline

Identity Crystallization: Aegis Phase 4d
  -> reads: Aegis pipeline outputs
  -> Cornerstone Signal Extraction (feeds signals)

Aegis: Fact Verification
  -> reads: claim_registry
  -> Heart Demon: Claim Verification  (parallel adversarial pass)

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Claude API Usage

14 workflows use Claude for classification, generation, and analysis:

• Email classification: Gmail Push Receiver (Haiku 4.5)
• Calendar intent: Calendar: Auto-Manage from Emails
• Entity extraction: Entity Extraction (real-time and batch)
• Contradiction detection: Memory: Nightly Contradiction Detection
• Claim verification: Heart Demon: Claim Verification (adversarial)
• Identity synthesis: Identity Crystallization, Cornerstone Signal Extraction
• Pattern analysis: Pattern Weaving, Counter-Narrative Generator
• Content generation: Morning Briefing, Daily Summary Generation, Session Summarization
• Issue parsing: Backlog: Natural Language Issue Creator
• Message formatting: GitHub: Discord Notifier

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Docker Configuration

Image:    docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:2.14.2
Database: Dedicated n8n Postgres database (n8n_role)
Networks: net-app, net-data, net-monitoring

Key environment variables:

Variable	Purpose
N8N_BLOCK_ENV_ACCESS_IN_NODE=false	Required for $env in Code nodes
N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX	50MB limit for Health Auto Export payloads
NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_BUILTIN=crypto	Timing-safe API key comparison in Code nodes
N8N_WEBHOOK_TTL	5-minute webhook timeout
V8 heap cap	Contains known n8n memory leak

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API Behavior

Updating Workflows

When updating a workflow via the n8n API, the PUT body must include only four fields:

{
  "name": "...",
  "nodes": [...],
  "connections": {...},
  "settings": {...}
}

Any other fields (id, tags, etc.) will cause the request to fail.

Activate/deactivate: POST /api/v1/workflows/{id}/activate or /deactivate. NOT PATCH.

Multi-Statement SQL

n8n Postgres nodes execute queries as prepared statements. Multiple statements in a single node will fail. Wrap multi-statement SQL in a function.

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Gotchas

$env in Code nodes

n8n v2.0+ blocks $env in Code nodes by default. The N8N_BLOCK_ENV_ACCESS_IN_NODE environment variable must be set to false and is configured on this deployment. If you see $env access errors after an upgrade, verify this variable is still set.

Google Push Watch Renewal — single point of failure

Gmail and Google Calendar Pub/Sub subscriptions have a 7-day TTL. The Google: Push Watch Renewal workflow runs every 4 hours to prevent expiration. If this workflow fails silently for more than 7 days, all Gmail and Calendar push notifications will stop arriving. There will be no error — data ingestion simply stops. Monitor its execution history.

Gmail classification prompt duplication

The email classification prompt exists in two places: classify_emails_v2.py and inside the gmail-push-receiver.json workflow. Both must be updated when the prompt changes. Updating only one will cause inconsistent classification behavior.

Health Auto Export payload size

Payloads from 26+ days of accumulated Apple Health data exceed 16MB. The N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX=52428800 environment variable (50MB) is required. If ingestion stops processing large payloads, check this limit first.

Entity Extraction real-time trigger

The real-time entity extraction workflow (Entity Extraction: Real-Time (pg_notify)) depends on a PostgreSQL NOTIFY trigger firing on messages and social_messages inserts (installed in migration 263+). If entity extraction seems stale, verify the trigger exists on both tables before diagnosing the workflow.

Memory Auto-Store required fields

The MCP memory server requires source, type, and confidence fields on every memory payload. Missing any of these fields causes silent drops — no error is returned. If memories from Claude sessions are not persisting, check these fields are populated before forwarding.

Inactive Workflows

Workflow	Reason
Brewery: Fermentation Monitor	Superseded by Brewer’s Friend Sync
Monarch Money: Daily Transaction Sync	Auth issue with Monarch Money API

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Related Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/verify/verify-n8n-workflow.sh	Trigger a workflow via API, poll for completion, output JSON pass/fail evidence
scripts/maintenance/gitops-converge.sh	References n8n as part of infrastructure convergence
scripts/dispatch/mission-dispatch.sh	Dispatches to n8n workflows via webhook

Export workflow artifacts: make n8n-export

Workflow JSON files in n8n/workflows/*.json are version-controlled export artifacts. Edit workflows via the n8n UI or MCP only — never edit the JSON files directly.