My second automation

For anyone who read my last post they'll know I'm fairly novice with n8n and planning on working it into a big full stack project.

So far, I've only actually used it for automating the dev log on the project, and now for automating the contact form on my website.

It's a simple automation so I don't expect crazy response but I always want to hear how things could be improved etc.

• A contact form on my site calls a backend API which POSTs the n8n URL
• The n8n webhook is ready and picks this up. It uses header auth for security
• The platform Resend, which I've only just discovered, sends two emails: one to the email address entered into the 'email' box on the contact form, thanking them for reaching out; one to me containing their query

Obviously a very simple automation but it took me a while to make.

I spent ages banging my head off the wall and it wasn't working; I endlessly redid the credentials and environmental variables, analysed the console error message.

In the end it was stupid –

I hadn't named the header auth as 'x-webhook-secret'. I thought it was only actually the secret itself that matters.

As someone learning development, I really enjoy the way automation forces you to understand how systems communicate, and I think it's essential now that AI can do all the coding. Particularly when it comes to troubleshooting, and thinking about where an issue could be in the process, a bit like when you learn networking and isolate ping failures.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them! I want to make sure my automations are bulletproof, even the simple ones like this.