BOTANICBASE
N8N SUITE
42 n8n workflows powering the entire backend of BotanicBase — an iOS plant app built independently. Every admin operation, AI content pipeline, community interaction, and DevOps task runs automatically with zero manual intervention.
42
Active Workflows
200+
Dev Hours Saved/yr
vs. manual operations
6
Workflow Categories
0
Manual Backend Tasks
Fully automated
OVERVIEW
BotanicBase is an iOS app for discovering plants and managing care guides — built independently in Swift. Rather than writing a traditional backend server, the entire data layer, admin panel, AI pipeline, and community system runs through n8n.
Every operation that would normally require a custom API endpoint — uploading images, fetching paginated CloudKit records, moderating community posts, generating AI content — is a dedicated n8n workflow. The iOS app and admin panel call these workflows via webhook. The result: a fully automated, production-grade backend with no server to maintain.
The suite also includes an MCP integration, making BotanicBase data queryable directly from Claude Code — and a weekly backup system that exports both the CloudKit database and all n8n workflow definitions for disaster recovery.
ALL 42 WORKFLOWS
AI & Intelligence
4 FLOWSClaude-powered workflows that generate and rewrite content automatically — eliminating hours of manual plant research and copywriting.
AI Plant Recommender
Webhook-triggered: takes user preferences and returns personalized plant recommendations via Claude
AI Plant Recommender [Manual]
Manually triggerable version for testing and one-off admin use
AI Care Tip Generator
Generates structured care tips for plants using Claude — runs on demand from the admin panel
Admin Rewrite Care Guide
Takes an existing care guide and rewrites it through Claude for quality and consistency improvements
Admin Operations
14 FLOWSThe full admin panel API layer — every create, read, update, and delete operation for BotanicBase content is handled by a dedicated n8n workflow.
Admin Upload Plant Images
Accepts image uploads via webhook and stores them to CloudKit with metadata
Admin Upload CareTip Image
Handles care tip image uploads and CloudKit sync
Admin Upload Quiz Question Image
Uploads quiz question images and updates the associated record
Admin Upload Garden Images
Processes and stores garden gallery images to CloudKit
Admin Get CareTips
Returns all care tips for the admin panel dashboard
Admin Get Quiz Questions
Fetches all quiz questions for admin review and editing
Admin Get Gardens
Returns the full garden list for admin management
Admin Get Plant Suggestions
Retrieves user-submitted plant suggestions awaiting review
Admin Approve Plant Suggestion
Approves a suggestion and promotes it to a live plant record
Admin Incomplete Plants
Surfaces plants missing required fields — images, descriptions, care data — for admin triage
Admin Get Health Logs
Returns server and CloudKit health history for ops monitoring
Admin Update Bug
Updates bug report status and resolution notes from the admin panel
Admin Auth
Validates admin credentials and issues a session token
Admin Verify
Token verification middleware called by protected admin endpoints
Reusable Subflows
8 FLOWSShared utility flows that handle paginated CloudKit data fetching — called by both admin workflows and public-facing endpoints to avoid code duplication.
[Subflow] Fetch All Plants
Paginates through the full CloudKit plant database and returns a flat list
[Subflow] Fetch All Gallery Images
Fetches all plant gallery images across the database
[Subflow] Fetch All Care Tips
Returns all care tip records regardless of count
[Subflow] Fetch All Gardens
Retrieves the complete list of user-created gardens
[Subflow] Fetch All Garden Gallery Images
Fetches all images associated with garden records
[Subflow] Fetch All Quiz Questions
Returns every quiz question for bulk operations
[Subflow] Fetch All Quiz Question Images
Fetches all quiz question image assets
[Subflow] Add Changelog Entry
Appends a new entry to the public changelog — called by other flows when content changes
Community & User
8 FLOWSThe full community layer — automated moderation, bug tracking, changelog publishing, Discord integration, and contact handling.
Plant Suggestion Sent
Receives user-submitted plant suggestions and queues them for admin review
Community Post Moderation
Runs new community posts through content moderation before publishing
Bug Report
Accepts bug reports from users and creates structured records in CloudKit
Public Bug Reports
Returns sanitized bug report data for the public-facing status/changelog page
Public Changelog
Serves the public changelog feed — includes app updates and new content drops
Contact Form
Handles contact form submissions and routes them to the appropriate inbox
Discord Interaction Handler
Responds to Discord slash commands and interactions for the BotanicBase community server
Get Quiz Questions [app]
App-facing endpoint that returns quiz questions to the iOS client
Infrastructure & DevOps
4 FLOWSZero-touch ops automation — weekly backups, live health checks, and workflow recovery. BotanicBase runs without any manual maintenance.
Weekly CloudKit Backup
Runs every week on schedule — exports the full CloudKit database to a backup store
n8n Workflow Backup
Exports all n8n workflow definitions on a weekly schedule for version-controlled recovery
GET Server Status
Health check endpoint returning real-time n8n server status — called by monitoring tools
GET Cloudkit Health Status
Probes CloudKit connectivity and returns a health report for ops dashboards
MCP Integration
1 FLOWSModel Context Protocol integration — allows Claude Code (and other MCP-compatible AI tools) to query BotanicBase data directly from a conversation.
BotanicBase - MCP
Exposes BotanicBase plant and content data as an MCP resource — queryable by Claude Code without leaving the terminal
HOURS SAVED
AI Content Pipeline
~90+ hrs/yr
Writing plant care guides manually takes 30–60 min each. AI generation eliminates this for every plant in the database, ongoing.
Automated Backups
~39 hrs/yr
Weekly CloudKit and workflow exports replace a 45-minute manual process — 52 weeks a year, zero human involvement.
Health Monitoring
~45+ hrs/yr
Automated server and CloudKit health checks replace manual status verification — called on demand by external monitoring tools.
Community Moderation
~26+ hrs/yr
Automated post moderation, bug intake, and Discord interaction handling eliminates ongoing manual community management.
TECH STACK
n8n
Workflow orchestration
Claude AI
Content generation
CloudKit
Database & storage
Discord API
Community integration
Swift / iOS
App client
MCP Protocol
AI tool integration