“Nodes as Tools” is a significant UX milestone when it comes to building AI Agents in n8n. If you’ve been put off due to wrangling custom workflow tools in the past, then this update is definitely for you!
Hey there 
I’m Jim and if you’ve enjoyed this article then please consider giving me a “like” and follow on Linkedin or X/Twitter . For more similar topics, check out my other AI posts in the forum.
From v1.62.1 onwards, the long awaited ability to directly attach n8n nodes as AI agent tools is finally a reality and my first impressions is that it’s really really good! Currently, the feature is referred to as “Nodes as Tools” (according to the the release notes) and is available in both the community and cloud versions - so, if you’ve been waiting for a reason to upgrade, this is it!
Some good things to note:
- Accessible when you select “tools” for your AI agent.
- Only 22 services supported so far out of 400+ available. The first batch looks like a deliberate focus on productivity and storage tools; great for building chatbots and RAG.
- Introduces the new expression
$fromAI()to inject dynamic parameters (see docs) from the agent. A better alternative to “placeholders” IMO and I wonder if this will deprecate placeholders entirely? - Langchain packages were updated as part of this release (v0.2 → v0.3) I think. This might just be a “me” thing but it opens up quite a few options for custom langchain code!
I’ve been playing around with the feature for a few days now and here are my thoughts on a few examples:
1. Internal Document Drive Assistant
Implement Google Drive AI before Google does! This example is a great showcase where an Agent can reduce a lot of the complexity with custom workflow tools; In this template, once the agent has a matched file, it can decide which tool to use to open it based on the mimetype.
2. Appointment Scheduling Agent
Much like my other template based on the HTTP tool, I find this agent implementation better due to easier configuration and maintenance using the service specific editor UI.
3. JIRA Feature Validation Assistant
This template uses the JIRA tool to query and update a JIRA board.
The $fromAI() expression really comes into its own here where we can use it to ask the Agent to generate its own JQL query to filter through our JIRA issues.
Conclusion
“Nodes as Tools” brings much needed simplication and ease-of-use to the Agent building process. I don’t think this will completely do away with custom workflow tools - you can’t chain nodes for example - but they feel much “natural” to work with in the n8n sense which I feel many people new to AI agents will enjoy. Overall, a fantastic and quite frankly jaw-dropping update to the suite of already impressive AI features in n8n. Kudos!
Thanks!
Jim
If you enjoy posts on n8n and AI, check out my other posts in the forum!
Follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter/X .
