2026-02-13 08:00:00

n8n-nodes-open5e is an n8n community node that lets you access D&D 5th edition SRD content from the Open5e API in your n8n workflows.

The Open5e node provides access to 12 different D&D 5e resources through the Open5e API. Each resource supports three operations:

• Get Many: Retrieve multiple items with optional filters and pagination
• Get: Retrieve a single item by its identifier (slug or key)
• Search: Search for items by name or description

Example Workflows

1. Random Encounter Generator

Create random encounters by fetching monsters filtered by challenge rating:

1. Add an Open5e node to your workflow
2. Select Resource: Monster
3. Select Operation: Get Many
4. In Filters, add:
   • Challenge Rating: 5
   • Document Source: wotc-srd
5. Toggle Return All ON to get all matching monsters
6. Connect to a Function node to randomly select 3-5 monsters
7. Format the output as needed (Discord message, email, etc.)

2. Spell Lookup Bot

Build a Discord bot that looks up spell information:

1. Use a Discord Trigger node to listen for commands
2. Add a Function node to extract the spell name from the command
3. Add an Open5e node:
   • Resource: Spell
   • Operation: Search
   • Search Term: ={{ $json.spellName }}
4. Add a Function node to format the spell details
5. Send the formatted spell info back to Discord

3. Item Database Search

Search for magic items and weapons by name:

1. Add an HTTP Request trigger or Form trigger to accept search queries
2. Add an Open5e node:
   • Resource: Magic Item (or Weapon)
   • Operation: Search
   • Search Term: ={{ $json.query }}
   • Limit: 10
3. Format and return the results

Contributing

This is my first n8n community node. Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request or open an issue if you encounter any issues.

2026-02-11 08:00:00

From my notebook:

Brains are pattern recognition machines.

I seek structure, sometimes meta-structure.

I try to structure how I structure things.

Projects, stories and adventures often only become apparent when they are in the past.

They evolve naturally, organically. Starting a project can result in something completely different. Is there a structure in that?

I am trying to find structure again.

Life is chaotic, and that's okay.

I had this on my mind for quite some time. I'm trying to cope with chaos in my life. I like chaos, and I like turning chaos into order. But often, that does not work and I get frustrated.

Projects - no matter if programming, writing, planning an event or woodworking - are inherently chaotic. There is no structure in the concept of a "project". I want to think of a project as the sum of threads of actions towards a goal, and life is the sum of every project you ever started. I try to find a way to capture and grasp these "threads" - like commits on different branches of a code repository. On projects other than programming, this utterly fails.

I have to keep telling myself to be fine with the fact that life does not follow a structure. My personal takeaway is learning to recognize when I am seeking structure as a response to anxiety vs. when I'm doing it because it's actually useful.

Am I alone with this? Does this resonate with anyone out there? I'd love to hear from you.

2026-02-04 08:00:00

The Setup

• MacOS
• VSCode
• Vim Extension

The Issue

Long-pressing j or k (think "down" or "up" in Vim) only results in one down or up action, instead of continuous scrolling.

The Fix

In a terminal, run the following command:

defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Original post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44010683

Additional tip

In the MacOS settings, set "Key Repeat Rate" and "Delay Until Repeat" to the highest setting to be able to scroll much faster.

<img width="478" height="92" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7bf85853-377d-4727-a5c8-2766f2794e8a" />

2026-02-03 08:00:00

The Scientific Method is widely accepted among researchers and academics to be the de facto standard of establishing truth.

Lately, I was wandering if parts of the scientific method could more often be applied to every day life. There are many different resources out there explaining the scientific method, often with examples of how to apply it outside of an academic environment. The core method is always the same (in this case, taken from sciencebuddies.org):

1. Ask a Question
2. Do Background Research
3. Construct a Hypothesis
4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
6. Communicate Your Results

Related: To prove something is true, try disproving it first

2026-02-02 08:00:00

The Cult of Done Manifesto is a fascinating way of embracing a chaotic mind. I copied the 13 golden rules into my very first pocket notebook and stumble upon them from time to time.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

2025-12-11 08:00:00

My local gym has a gauge on their website that shows an approximation of how many people are currently there. Being an avid Home Assistant user, of course I had to pipe that data into my dashboard somehow. For that, I created a simple n8n workflow that scrapes the data off the gym's site and dumps it into a custom entity.

Because creating a custom entity was not quite so straight forward as I'd hoped, I wanted to share how I did it.

I ended up using the input_number integration (which seems to come with Home Assistant) and defined an entity that I could reference through the API:

`yaml

configuration.yaml

inputnumber: easyfitnessauslastung: name: EasyFitness Auslastung initial: 0 min: 0 max: 100 step: 1 `

After reloading the configuration, the entity was ready to be written to.

As mentioned, I'm using a self-hosted instance of n8n on a Raspberry Pi to automate this. Using their Home Assistant Integration, you can simply address the new entity and update its state. And just like that, I was able to add a new Gauge to my dashboard!