How to create an agent using claude

byMToback

1.3K followers

5 months ago

Mel posted something about creating agents

So I asked Claude the following question: I am new to the concept of creating an agent and not to technical. But I understand that an agent is something that can automate part of my business processes. Please take me from the point where I need to define the business process. I am going to use to create an agent and walk me through how I would do that with the n8n mcp.

here is what I got:

I’ll walk you through creating an agent to automate your business processes, starting from the very beginning. Let me break this down into simple, manageable steps.

Step 1: Define Your Business Process

First, you need to clearly map out what you want to automate. Here’s how to think about it:

Pick one specific process to start with.

Common examples include:

- Customer inquiry responses

- Invoice processing

- Lead qualification from contact forms

- Social media post scheduling

- Data entry between systems

- Order status updates

Document your current process by writing down:

- What triggers the process (like “when someone fills out a contact form”)

- Each step you currently do manually

- What information gets moved where

- What decisions you make along the way

- What the final outcome should be

For example: “When someone submits a contact form → I read their message → I categorize it as sales/support/general → I send an appropriate response → I add them to the right email list → I create a task in my CRM”

Step 2: Understanding n8n and MCP

n8n is a workflow automation tool that connects different apps and services together. Think of it like digital plumbing that moves information between your business tools.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) allows n8n to work with AI models like Claude to add intelligent decision-making to your workflows.

Step 3: Setting Up Your Agent Workflow

Here’s how you’d approach this in n8n:

Start with the trigger - This is what kicks off your automation (webhook, email, schedule, etc.)

Add processing steps - These might include:

- Extracting information from forms or emails

- Looking up data in spreadsheets or databases

- Making decisions based on content

Include the AI agent - This is where MCP comes in. You can have Claude:

- Analyze incoming messages

- Make classification decisions

- Generate personalized responses

- Extract key information

End with actions - Send emails, update databases, create tasks, etc.

Step 4: Practical Implementation

You don’t need to be highly technical, but you’ll need to:

- Set up an n8n instance (they offer cloud hosting)

- Connect your existing tools (Gmail, Slack, your CRM, etc.)

- Configure the MCP connection to work with Claude

- Test your workflow with sample data

Step 5: Start Simple and Expand

Begin with the most straightforward part of your process. Maybe just having Claude categorize incoming emails and route them to the right folder. Once that works, add the next step.

What business process are you thinking of automating? If you can describe a specific workflow you do regularly, I can walk you through how that would translate into an n8n automation with an AI agent. This will make the concepts much more concrete and actionable for your situation.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​