How to make videos with n8n

1. Schedule Trigger: Trigger Interval Weeks, Monday at 9:00 (or Custom (Cron)). The schedule uses the workflow's timezone, else the instance's. Save and publish the workflow so it runs.
2. AI Agent with a chat model, a search tool of your choice and the MCP Client Tool (Bearer Auth, Tools to Include: Selected → list_templates, estimate_credits). The System Message tells it to research the week's story, write the narration as script, and return the script, template_id and estimate_credits result.
3. MCP Client node (standalone, same endpoint and credential): call create_job with the template_id, title, script and a thumbnail_reference_url. Cliptude returns its review and a review_token and creates nothing yet.
4. Slack (or Gmail) Send and Wait for Response: post the review settings, warnings and credits to yourself and wait for Approve. On Approve, a second MCP Client node calls create_job again with the same arguments and the review_token, and keeps the job id.
5. Wait node (After Time Interval, 15 minutes), then an MCP Client node calling get_job with the job id, then an If node: completed goes on, anything else loops back to the Wait.
6. Slack or Telegram: send the video link. Before you publish it, open the job in Cliptude, or ask a chat agent to run open_editor_project and view_scenes, to check every frame.

Source: n8n docs: Schedule Trigger node

n8n's AI Agent node has no skills folder. Its counterpart is the System Message option, which "guides the agent's decision-making" on every run. Paste the rules from the Cliptude skills there, and use Tools to Include on the MCP Client Tool node to decide which Cliptude tools the agent may call.

The cliptude-script skill (about 7 KB) fits well: it tells the agent to research the topic and write the spoken narration rather than pass the title as a prompt. The cliptude skill (about 19 KB) covers templates, the review and continue_job. The cliptude-plan skill is over 70 KB and directs every shot of an agent-planned video; that work suits a coding agent such as Claude Code better than a scheduled n8n run.

Searches for "n8n skills" often mean community skill packs that teach a coding agent to build n8n workflows, such as czlonkowski/n8n-skills (installed with npx skills add). Those are not from n8n and do not change what the AI Agent node does at run time. The skills CLI has no n8n target.

You make long-form 16:9 YouTube videos with the Cliptude tools.
- Never pass the video title as prompt. Research the topic, write the spoken narration, and pass it as script.
- Call list_templates, then estimate_credits with the template and script, and return the script, template_id and credits.
- Do not call create_job: the workflow sends it for approval first.

https://github.com/cliptude/cliptude/tree/main/mcp_server/skills/cliptude-script
https://github.com/cliptude/cliptude/tree/main/mcp_server/skills/cliptude

Source: n8n docs: Tools Agent (System Message, Max Iterations)

Either can start a Cliptude video from a schedule. n8n suits a weekly video because it bills by workflow execution, can run on your own server for free, and has an AI Agent that calls Cliptude's tools plus built-in steps that pause for your approval in Slack or email. Zapier's MCP Client is the simpler pick if your other automations already live in Zapier, but each completed action counts against your tasks.

Source: n8n pricing

Self-hosted n8n without a license key runs as the free Community edition; you pay for the server. n8n Cloud's Starter plan is €20 a month billed annually with 2,500 executions a month, and Pro is €50 a month billed annually with 10,000. Business (€667 a month billed annually, 40,000 executions) is self-hosted, and Enterprise is priced by sales. Starter and Pro have a free trial with no credit card.

The AI Agent node also needs a chat model, billed by its provider. A weekly video workflow uses a handful of executions a month, plus the model's tokens for research and writing. The video itself is charged to your Cliptude credits, on a plan from $19; Cliptude has no free plan.

Source: n8n pricing

n8n is a fair-code licensed workflow automation tool that combines AI features with business process automation. You build workflows from nodes on a canvas, on n8n Cloud or on your own server, and its AI Agent node can call tools, including any MCP server through the MCP Client Tool node.

MCP Client Tool or MCP Client node?

The MCP Client Tool node gives an AI Agent a set of Cliptude tools to choose from. The standalone MCP Client node calls one tool you pick, with set parameters, and needs no model: use it for steps such as get_job.