Workflow Builder
Recently, I came across React Flow and decided to give it a try and it’s such a powerful library for building interactive node-based UIs!
Full Stack Dev
Project Overview
This experiment really helped me understand how tools like n8n or Zapier structure their flows under the hood — and how React Flow simplifies building something similar.
Through this, I learned a lot about:
• How React Flow handles nodes, edges, and state management
• Dynamically adding/removing nodes and updating connections
• Customizing node components to create interactive UI elements
• Managing workflow logic behind the scenes while keeping the UI intuitive
got so excited that I decided to build something similar to n8n (that workflow automation tool). My version has four types of nodes:
• Start Node - Where every workflow begins
• AI Node - Does AI stuff like text processing, summarization, sentiment analysis, content generation
• API Node - Makes HTTP requests to external services, handles webhooks, processes responses
• End Node - Outputs the final result and formats data
The idea is simple: drag these nodes around, connect them, and create workflows where data flows from AI processing to API calls and back.
The Tricky Parts
• Node Communication: Getting nodes to actually pass data to each other was harder than I thought. React Flow handles the visual connections, but you have to build the data pipeline yourself.
• Dynamic Configuration: Each AI task and API call needs different settings. I had to figure out how to make the configuration panel change based on what type of operation you select - whether it's an AI node with prompt settings or an API node with headers and endpoints.