● What it is: an open-source personal automation agent that runs on your own machine — Mac, Windows or a private server.
● Licence: Apache 2.0, released 12 November by n8n Labs.
● Model choice: you pick which model powers it. Nothing is locked to one vendor.
● Scope: works in a sandboxed browser and desktop environment rather than through an API-only integration.
n8n Labs released Nod on 12 November under Apache 2.0: a personal automation agent that runs locally on Mac, Windows or a private server. The examples cited are the dull, repetitive kind — meeting prep, filing invoices, cancelling a subscription — which is the right target for something that drives a browser on your behalf.
Two choices separate it from the hosted agents. It runs in a sandboxed browser and desktop environment on hardware you control, so the data it touches does not need to leave the machine. And you choose the model, which means the running cost is whatever you negotiate with a model provider rather than a seat price.
The usual caveat for self-hosted agents applies: the convenience of a hosted product is that someone else maintains the sandbox and the browser automation underneath it. Running Nod yourself means that is your job. For anyone already running n8n workflows the marginal cost of that is low, and for everyone else it is the whole decision.
Common questions
Does Nod send my data to n8n?
It runs locally on your own machine or private server, so the data it works with stays where you run it. The model you connect is a separate choice with its own terms.
Which models does it work with?
You choose. Nod does not lock to a single vendor, which also means the running cost is whatever your chosen model provider charges rather than a per-seat fee.
Is it free?
It is open source under Apache 2.0. The cost is the model usage and the time to run it yourself.
Sources