House of Loops is for people who would rather run their software than rent it. Swap SaaS tools for open-source ones on a server you control, run AI where your data lives, and automate what is left. Join free for four starter courses and a live call every Monday. Run by Shannon Atkinson.
Free to join, no credit card. Premium opens the rest when you want it.
The community
Four starter courses, a live call every Monday morning, and a place to ask when something breaks. Free, and you can see the feed before you post.
Open the communityThe newsletter
34 chapters on self-hosting n8n, free. Then new templates as they land, with the JSON and the reasoning. Not ready to join? Start here.
Seven pillars
One idea in seven parts: run the software you would otherwise rent. n8n is one of the engines, not the whole point. Each card names the courses to start with.
Swap a SaaS bill for open-source tools you run yourself, one tested swap at a time.
Start with
Run chat, document search and agents on hardware you own, so your data stays with you.
Start with
Use Claude Code and other coding agents to build the internal tools and small apps you would otherwise rent.
Start with
Build agents that loop reliably: tools they call correctly, memory that survives a restart, and guardrails that stop a bad loop.
Start with
Docker Compose on one server, with backups you have restored, monitoring, CI and a runbook for when it breaks.
Start with
One small server your business runs on: Docker, a tunnel with no open ports, backups and single sign-on.
Automate the back office: leads, payments and invoices, with n8n, Activepieces or Windmill as the engine.
Start with
Start free
Done in that order, they take you to a working homelab running local AI. Premium opens the rest of the syllabus.
Here is what exists today and what is being built. The community is new, so you will see it grow rather than arrive at a finished archive.
Docker Compose, Postgres, and task runners. Installation, configuration, security, and your first working workflow, written from a production setup.
Installing and running Claude Code, n8n vs Make vs Zapier, building AI agents with n8n and OpenAI, RAG with Pinecone, enterprise automation architecture, and more.
The Skool classroom, organised as a path rather than a pile: n8n, AI agents, Claude Code, and the automation fundamentals underneath them.
44 automation, database, AI, and cloud tools with notes on when to pick each, plus side-by-side comparisons.
The real exports with the JSON, a node diagram, a node-by-node walk-through, and the setup and limits for each. Free, no email wall.
Coming: watch a workflow get built end to end and ask questions while it happens. Nothing has been recorded yet.
Post the workflow that broke. At this size, the person who replies is the person who built the templates.
Who runs this
I build the unglamorous side of software for a living: the workflows that move data between systems, the automations that run at 3 a.m., and the AI agents that have to behave when someone's revenue depends on them. Through Rainman Design I do that for businesses, mostly with n8n, self-hosted infrastructure, and LLM integrations.
I also ship my own products, from a self-hosted restreaming platform to payment-recovery tooling and open-source nodes for n8n, so I hit the same walls members do. House of Loops is where I share what survived contact with production: the templates I actually run, the guides written from real deployments, and straight answers when your workflow breaks.
The community opened recently and is small on purpose. That is the trade: fewer people, more attention. Here is what joining now gets you.
Guides and comparisons for n8n, Make, Zapier, and AI agents. Every post is free; the community is where the follow-up questions get answered.
Yes, with conditions. What the free n8n Community edition includes, what the Sustainable Use License actually permits, and how n8n Cloud bills by execution.
Seven real n8n alternatives compared on licence, hosting model and cost model, plus a straight answer on when n8n is still the better tool for the job.
Practices that survive real use: a CLAUDE.md that helps, scoped sessions, plan mode, permissions, reviewable diffs, subagents, hooks and MCP, grounded in n8n work.
Pick the door that fits. The community is free and open today; the newsletter sends the n8n deployment guide, then new workflows as they land.
The community
Four starter courses, a live call every Monday morning, and a place to ask when something breaks. Free, and you can see the feed before you post.
Open the communityThe newsletter
34 chapters on self-hosting n8n, free. Then new templates as they land, with the JSON and the reasoning. Not ready to join? Start here.
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