How to Automate Social Media with n8n

Step-by-step

1. 1

   Add an HTTP Request node to your workflow

   Drag in an HTTP Request node from the n8n node panel. Set Method to POST and URL to https://api.codivupload.com/v1/posts. This single node handles the entire publish flow for any of CodivUpload's 11 supported platforms — you don't need a separate node for each network.

2. 2

   Configure authentication via Header Auth credential

   In the HTTP Request node's Authentication dropdown, select Generic Credential Type → Header Auth. Create a new credential with Name=Authorization and Value=Bearer YOUR_API_KEY. n8n stores the key encrypted and never exposes it inside workflow logs. Reuse this credential across every node that talks to CodivUpload — you only set up the secret once.

3. 3

   Build the request body with profile_name + platforms

   Switch Body Content Type to JSON. Paste the body template below and replace the static values with n8n expressions that pull from upstream nodes — e.g. {{$json.caption}} for the caption from an Airtable row trigger, or {{$json.image_url}} for the image. The profile_name and platforms fields are required; everything else is optional.

   {
     "post_type": "image",
     "profile_name": "my_brand",
     "platforms": ["instagram", "x", "linkedin"],
     "media_urls": ["{{$json.image_url}}"],
     "description": "{{$json.caption}}",
     "scheduled_date": "{{$json.scheduled_at}}",
     "instagram_share_to_feed": true,
     "linkedin_visibility": "PUBLIC"
   }

4. 4

   Add a trigger appropriate to your use case

   Replace the manual trigger with: Cron (scheduled posts at fixed times), Webhook (real-time triggers from external systems), Airtable (when a row is added or updated to a specific status), or RSS (when a new feed item appears). The body expressions resolve against the trigger node's output, so the structure of {{$json.x}} matches the trigger's payload schema.

5. 5

   Layer in AI for caption generation (optional)

   Insert an OpenRouter or OpenAI Chat Completion node between your trigger and the HTTP Request. Pass the trigger's image URL into a vision-capable model (Claude 4.5 Sonnet, GPT-5) with a prompt like: "Write a punchy Instagram caption with 3 hashtags for this image, in our brand voice (casual, playful, direct)." Reference the LLM's output in the HTTP body as {{$node['OpenRouter'].json.choices[0].message.content}}.

6. 6

   Add error handling with the Error Trigger workflow

   In your main workflow's settings, set Error Workflow to a separate workflow that fires on any failed HTTP Request. Inside the error workflow, route failures to Slack or email with the failed payload attached so you can triage quota issues, expired credentials, or platform-specific rejections without polling logs manually.

Frequently asked