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RocketRide and n8n connect in both directions:

• RocketRide → n8n: the tool_n8n node triggers n8n workflows from a pipeline step or an agent tool.
• n8n → RocketRide: any n8n workflow calls a RocketRide pipeline through the pipeline's webhook endpoint, using n8n's built-in HTTP Request node.

Combining the two gives round-trips: RocketRide → n8n → RocketRide.

Templates: examples/n8n-roundtrip.pipe (RocketRide side) and examples/n8n-call-rocketride.workflow.json (n8n side, importable).

Runnable pipelines that exercise every mode (sync / async / sequential / agent / round-trip) live in examples/n8n/ — open them in the IDE.

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RocketRide → n8n (the tool_n8n node)

Drop the n8n node into a pipeline (wired by lanes) or attach it to an agent (tool channel). Full reference: tool_n8n node.

The essentials:

1. The target n8n workflow needs a Webhook trigger node — triggering is webhook-only; manual/cron workflows can't be called over HTTP.
2. Activate/publish the workflow — the production /webhook/... route 404s until then.
3. End the workflow with a "Respond to Webhook" node so a result comes back (sync mode). For long runs, switch the node to async mode: it injects a correlation id, then polls executions via the public API (API key required) until the run finishes.

Sending files / structured data

• Structured data: set the node's Payload shape to structured — the pipeline step sends {text, documents:[{content, metadata}]} (preserving document boundaries + metadata) instead of flattening to {"data": "..."}. The simple default stays back-compatible.
• Files / binary: wire an image / audio / video lane into the node — it uploads the bytes to n8n as multipart/form-data (binary part image_0 etc., text alongside as form fields), and if the workflow Responds with a Binary File, the bytes come back onto the matching lane. Capped at 16 MB (n8n's default N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX) with a clear error.

Reaching non-webhook workflows (cron / manual / event)

Triggering is webhook-only, and n8n's public API has no "run-by-id" — so a workflow whose trigger is a Schedule/Cron, Manual, or an app event (Gmail, etc.) can't be invoked on demand directly. (Such workflows still run on their own schedule; this is only about invoking them on demand from RocketRide.)

Escape hatch — a thin webhook dispatcher that calls the target via n8n's Execute Sub-Workflow node:

[RR tool_n8n] → POST /webhook/my-dispatch
                  │
n8n dispatcher: [Webhook] → [Execute Sub-Workflow → target] → [Respond to Webhook]
                  │ returns the target's output

1. On the target workflow, add an "Execute Sub-Workflow Trigger" ("When Executed by Another Workflow") as an entry point.
2. Import examples/n8n/n8n-dispatch.workflow.json, point its Execute Workflow node at the target, and activate it.
3. Set tool_n8n's Workflow to the dispatcher's webhook path (my-dispatch); it's triggered like any webhook and the target's output flows back.

n8n → RocketRide

Any RocketRide pipeline that starts with a webhook, chat, or dropper source node is HTTP-callable. When such a pipeline starts, the source node publishes its connection details (shown in the IDE): the interface URL (e.g. http://localhost:5567/webhook), a public authorization key, and a private token.

The RocketRide community node (preferred)

We publish an official n8n community package, n8n-nodes-rocketride, so you do not have to hand-roll HTTP calls. It has zero runtime dependencies and requires n8n 1.94.0+. It ships two nodes:

• RocketRide (action) — calls a deployed pipeline. Operations: Run Pipeline (text, JSON, or structured text + documents payloads), Upload Files (n8n binary fields as multipart/form-data), and Chat. It is marked usableAsTool, so an n8n AI Agent can call RocketRide directly; and it normalizes the response, lifting a single pipeline result to the top level instead of hard-coding RocketRide's dynamic output-lane names.
• RocketRide Trigger — a branded replacement for a generic Webhook node for the RocketRide → n8n direction. Paste its URL into the tool_n8n node. Supports an optional shared secret on the Authorization header and a configurable respond mode.

Only the RocketRide action node uses a credential — a single RocketRide API credential holding the gateway Base URL (e.g. http://localhost:5567) and the pipeline's public pk_… API Key, sent as a Bearer token. RocketRide Trigger takes no credential: RocketRide calls it, so its only authentication is the optional shared secret above.

Once the package is published to npm, self-hosted instance owners install it from Settings → Community Nodes → Install by entering n8n-nodes-rocketride; on n8n Cloud it appears in the Nodes panel after n8n approves it as a verified community node. To let n8n's AI Agent call it as a tool, set N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ALLOW_TOOL_USAGE=true on your instance.

Source, full node/credential reference, and an importable example workflow: packages/n8n-nodes/.

Without the community node (HTTP Request)

If you cannot install community packages, add an HTTP Request node:

Setting	Value
Method	POST
URL	the pipeline's interface URL, e.g. http://localhost:5567/webhook
Header	Authorization: <public auth key>
Body	JSON payload for the pipeline

The pipeline's response_* node determines what comes back to n8n. Import examples/n8n-call-rocketride.workflow.json for a ready-made Webhook → HTTP Request → Respond to Webhook workflow.

Round-trips (RocketRide → n8n → RocketRide)

Chain the two directions:

RR pipeline A: [source] → [tool_n8n: workflow "rocketride-demo"] → [response]
                                  │ POST /webhook/rocketride-demo
n8n workflow:  [Webhook] → [HTTP Request → RR pipeline B's webhook] → [Respond to Webhook]
                                  │ POST http://.../webhook (pipeline B)
RR pipeline B: [webhook] → … → [response]   — its result returns to n8n, then up to pipeline A

Pipeline A's tool_n8n step waits for n8n's response, which itself contains pipeline B's response — synchronous nesting across both systems. Start from examples/n8n-roundtrip.pipe for the A side.

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Reach any SaaS via n8n (credential vault)

RocketRide ships no built-in SaaS connectors — but n8n has 1000+ (Slack, Gmail, HubSpot, Google Sheets, Notion, S3, …), each authenticated by n8n's own credential store. So an RR pipeline (or agent) can act on almost any app by triggering an n8n workflow that does the work: Webhook → <app node(s)> → Respond to Webhook, then drop tool_n8n in the pipeline (or attach it to an agent) pointed at that workflow. The agent-tool face lets an LLM pick which automation to fire at runtime.

Payload contract — what your workflow receives:

• simple mode → $json.body = { "data": "<text>" }
• structured mode → $json.body = { "text": "...", "documents": [{ "content", "metadata" }] }
• binary lanes → multipart/form-data: text fields in $json.body, files in $binary (image_0, audio_0, …)
• async mode also injects _rr_correlation_id — echo it through so polling can match the run

Return data via a Respond to Webhook node (sync) or read it from the execution (async).

Human-in-the-loop (approvals)

Gate an RR run on a human decision with n8n's Wait node. Use async mode (a sync HTTP call would time out waiting for a person): tool_n8n (async) → a workflow that pauses on Wait → On Webhook Call (or the Human in the Loop node), which exposes $execution.resumeUrl; notify the approver, and when they act n8n resumes and the run returns the decision. (Async requires the API key.)

Failure handling (error workflows)

Centralize alerting/dead-lettering with an n8n error workflow: build one whose first node is the Error Trigger, then in each target workflow's Settings → Error workflow select it. On failure n8n routes the execution + error there (Slack alert, ticket, retry…) — independent of tool_n8n, which still surfaces its own clear errors (404 → activate, ack → add a Respond node, timeout, …).

Observability

In async mode (and from n8n.get_execution / n8n.list_executions), results carry a url deep-link straight to the run in n8n's execution view — useful for tracing a RocketRide step to its n8n execution.

Reachability appendix (read this if anything 404s or times out)

Both directions are plain HTTP, so what matters is where each process runs:

RocketRide deployment	n8n on your machine (localhost:5678)	What to enter as the n8n Base URL
Local (IDE-managed, native process)	✅ reachable	http://localhost:5678
Docker / On-Prem (engine in a container)	❌ localhost is the container	http://host.docker.internal:5678 — on Linux add extra_hosts: ["host.docker.internal:host-gateway"]; or run n8n on the same Docker network and use http://n8n:5678
Cloud	❌ private hosts unreachable	expose n8n publicly or via a tunnel (e.g. Cloudflare Tunnel) and use that URL

The tool_n8n node detects the Docker case at runtime and suggests the fix in its error message.

The reverse direction has the same physics. If n8n runs in Docker and RocketRide runs natively, n8n's HTTP Request node must call http://host.docker.internal:<port>/webhook, not localhost.

n8n behind Docker or a reverse proxy: set n8n's WEBHOOK_URL environment variable to its externally reachable URL — otherwise n8n displays (and registers) webhook URLs based on what it sees internally (localhost:5678), which other systems can't reach.

TLS: a self-signed local n8n over HTTPS fails certificate verification by default — turn off the node's "Verify TLS certificate" toggle for that case only.