n8n

n8n-nodes-bluebot adds two nodes to n8n. The BlueBot node calls every operation in the BlueBot API: send a text, schedule one, read texts, check a number, manage webhooks. The BlueBot Trigger node starts a workflow when something happens, such as a text coming in, through a webhook BlueBot posts to.

Texts sent from n8n go through your sending rules like every other text and show source: "n8n" in BlueBot. Because n8n can run on your own server, a workflow’s logic and the data it reads stay on machines you control; only the texts themselves pass through BlueBot and your Mac. A self-hosted n8n flow walks through one.

Install the node

The package is n8n-nodes-bluebot on npm. It needs n8n 1.85 or newer.

On your own n8n, as the owner or an admin:

If your n8n can’t install from the panel (community packages turned off, no network from the container, or a read-only image), install it by hand in n8n’s folder and restart n8n:

mkdir -p ~/.n8n/nodes
cd ~/.n8n/nodes
npm install n8n-nodes-bluebot
# then restart n8n

In Docker, run the same inside a volume mounted at /home/node/.n8n, or build your own image FROM n8nio/n8n with the package installed there, so it survives the container being replaced. In queue mode, every worker runs nodes too, so each worker’s image needs the package.

n8n Cloud installs only community nodes that n8n has verified. The BlueBot node follows n8n’s rules for verified nodes; until n8n Cloud lists it, use n8n’s HTTP Request node there, as described in Without the node.

Add your credentials

The BlueBot node

Pick a Resource, then an Operation. Each operation is one API call, and every field matches the API’s field of the same name. The node sends one request per input item, so 30 items in means 30 texts, paced by your sending rules.

Message: Send Text

Under Add Field:

The output item is the message, usually state: "queued". A text that can’t go yet (quiet hours, your Mac offline, a daily limit) still succeeds, with hold.reason and hold.until. A text to somebody on your stop list comes back state: "canceled" with cancel_reason: "opted_out".

Message: Get Many

Each text is one output item, newest first.

Message: Update, Cancel and Resolve

Update changes a scheduled text before it’s due: Text, Send At, Expires At and Metadata (which replaces the metadata whole). Cancel takes a Message ID and cancels a scheduled or queued text; one the Mac already took fails with conflict. Resolve settles an unconfirmed text with Action Mark Sent (the person got it) or Send Again (a new text with the same words).

File: Upload and Get

Upload takes a binary property (default data) and an optional Name, and outputs the file with its file_ id. Get takes a File ID and outputs the file; turn on Download to put its bytes in a binary property as well, which is how you save a picture or voice memo someone sent you. A file’s url works for an hour.

Lookup: Check iMessage

Takes a Number (a phone number or email address) and outputs service (imessage, sms or unknown), basis and last_seen_at. It reads your own Messages history through your Mac and waits up to 15 seconds. A number you’ve never texted is unknown, because Apple gives no way to ask.

Webhook operations

Create takes a URL (public https) and Events, and outputs the webhook with its signing secret, the one time the API shows it. Send Test Event sends an example of the type you pick to that webhook. Rotate Secret makes a new secret; the old one signs beside it for 24 hours. Webhook Delivery → Replay sends one delivery again. You rarely need these with the trigger node, which manages its own webhook.

When a call fails

The node shows BlueBot’s message as the error, its hint as the description, and the code, HTTP status and request id in the details, such as “Send to or chat_id.” with “Check the fields named in the message and send it again.” Quote the request id if you write to support.

• Turn on Retry On Fail in the node’s settings for rate_limited (429) and the 5xx errors. The node waits at least the retry_after BlueBot asks for, and its default idempotency key keeps a retried send from going twice.
• Turn on Continue On Fail to let the other items go on when one has a bad number. The failed item’s output carries the error.
• A held text is not an error, and neither is a text that fails after it was accepted. Catch those with the trigger node on Message Failed, Message Expired and Message Unconfirmed.

The BlueBot Trigger node

Starts a workflow when BlueBot posts an event. It makes its own webhook in your BlueBot account when the workflow is activated, pointing at n8n’s production webhook URL, and deletes it when the workflow is deactivated.

The node keeps the webhook’s signing secret in the workflow and checks webhook-signature on every request. A request without a valid signature, or more than five minutes old, is answered 401 and never starts the workflow, so nobody who learns the URL can fake a text.

To try it, press Listen for test event. The node makes a webhook to n8n’s test URL for as long as it listens. Then text your BlueBot number from another phone, one you’ve texted through BlueBot before (BlueBot copies only those chats unless Which chats to copy is set to Everything). The event shows in the node’s output.

On your own server

BlueBot only posts to public https addresses on the default port, and doesn’t follow redirects. A self-hosted n8n behind a reverse proxy must tell its nodes the public address, or the trigger node registers http://localhost:5678/…, which BlueBot refuses.

WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.example.com/
N8N_PROXY_HOPS=1

• Put n8n behind a proxy that ends TLS (Caddy, nginx, Traefik) with a real certificate. A self-signed certificate fails BlueBot’s check.
• For a laptop with no public address, run a tunnel such as cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:5678 and set WEBHOOK_URL to the address it prints. Restart n8n after changing it.
• Deactivate and activate a workflow after the address changes, so the trigger node makes a new webhook at the new address.
• Keep n8n’s encryption key (N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY) when you move servers, or the BlueBot credential can’t be read.

Without the node

Any n8n, n8n Cloud included, can call the API with the HTTP Request node.

To receive events without the trigger node, use n8n’s Webhook node and make the webhook yourself with POST /v1/webhooks. Check each request’s signature in a Code node before trusting it, as Verify signatures shows.