In partnership with
Ever ask an AI how to cancel a subscription and get back eight steps you still have to do yourself?
n8n just released an agent that does the steps.
It's called Nod. It came out on November 10 from n8n Labs, as a research preview, and it's a separate app you install on your Mac or Windows PC. You don't need an n8n account.
The difference from a chat window: Nod gets its own little computer and browser inside your machine. So it can sign in, click through and finish the job, in Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Slack, or on a website with no integration at all.
The app is free and open source. You bring the AI: an API key, your ChatGPT plan, or a model running on your own computer.
(I tried OpenClaw a while back and it broke more than it was useful. So I read Nod's docs with that in mind.)
Right after this: how to set it up, the first job I'd give it, how to keep the bill in check, and the one thing it can't do yet.
Now a quick word from today's sponsor.
More patients say ”Yes” with Cherry Payment Plans
Had enough of, “Let me think about it?” With Cherry, patients can apply for financing solutions on their phones in about 35 seconds - and 90% of them are approved*.
The result? Practices have seen acceptance rates rising by as much as 50%!
* These figures come from Cherry’s provider case studies, so individual results vary. Details at withcherry.com/provider-reviews. Payment options through Cherry are issued by the following financing partners: withcherry.com/financing-partners
Right. Back to it.
Set it up
Check your computer. On a Mac you need macOS 14 or later, and the download is about 1.8 GB. On Windows you need Windows 11, WSL 2 and at least 20 GB of free space.
Search "n8n Nod", download the installer for your system and open it. On a Mac, drag it to Applications first.
Choose Get started and answer the optional questions while it sets up.
Connect Gmail or Outlook if you want it working in your email. You can skip this and add apps later from Apps in the sidebar.
Connect a model. The OpenAI option lets you sign in with ChatGPT Plus or Pro at no extra cost. You can also paste an API key or point it at a local model.
The first job I'd give it
Something boring that repeats and lives behind a login. Like the supplier invoice you download by hand every month:
On the [1st] of every month at [9:00], sign in to [supplier website] with my saved login, download last month's invoice and save it to my Google Drive folder [Invoices].
Don't pay, send or delete anything.
When it's done, tell me what you downloaded.Or a price watch:
Every morning at 8:00, check the price of [product] on [store page]. Only message me if it drops below [price].Nod's docs give the rule for a good request: say what done looks like, name the site, and say whether to draft or send.
Keep the bill where you can see it
The app itself costs nothing. Your model provider is the one billing you, and n8n says some early testers found tasks cost more than they expected.
So there are two guardrails:
A monthly limit. Nod sets it to $200 when you finish setup. To change it, select an API model, open Usage in the sidebar, click the limit at the top, type a new amount and select Save. Or tell Nod "Set my monthly limit to $40".
Check-ins. Once a task has spent $5 since your last message to it, Nod stops and asks whether to keep going.
$200 is a high default for a first month of trying it, if you ask me. I'd start at $20 and raise it once you know what your jobs cost.
One detail worth knowing before you connect Gmail: Nod checks for new mail every 15 minutes, and each new email starts a small run with your model. That's usage you never typed.
The honest part
It stops when your laptop sleeps. Schedules only run while Nod is open and the computer is awake. If a run comes due while it's off, it runs once when you're back.
It's also a research preview, it has one owner per install, and it can't make phone calls.
The safety part is better than I expected. Before Nod sends, pays, posts or deletes anything you didn't ask for, a separate check confirms you asked for it, and an email or web page can't give it orders. That check is itself a model and can get it wrong, which is why Nod asks when your words don't cover an action.
Make it stick
Pick one errand you do every month that starts with logging in somewhere. Give Nod only that job, as a schedule, with "Don't pay, send or delete anything" in the instruction.
Check Usage after the first run. That's the whole habit.
You've got the tools. Now get the other 90%.
Today you got an agent that runs your errands. Next week there'll be another one. Most people keep collecting tools, then re-explain themselves in every chat and fix whatever comes back by hand.
Overpowered is the complete system I run my AI on. Set it up once and every AI you use starts working like it already knows you.
It's $29 a month.
Talk tomorrow,
Zephyr
P.S. What's the first errand you'd hand to an agent like this? Hit reply and tell me. I'm collecting the boring ones.