Track macro regime shifts with FRED MCP, OpenAI, and Slack alerts

Quick overview

This workflow runs weekly to pull selected macroeconomic time series from a FRED MCP server, detect regime changes versus last week, and—when something shifts—uses OpenAI to write a business-specific interpretation and posts a formatted brief to Slack.

How it works

1. Runs every Monday morning (or on manual run) and loads configuration like the MCP server URL, series list, and business context.
2. Calls the FRED MCP server to list available tools and stops if required endpoints are missing.
3. Reads last week’s saved values and regimes for each series from an n8n Data Table.
4. For each configured FRED series, fetches series metadata and recent observations from the MCP server in parallel and scores the series “shape” (streaks, quarter move, and z-score) into a regime label.
5. Adds derived macro signals that combine multiple series (10Y–2Y spread, Sahm rule gap, and real policy rate) and compares every current regime to last week’s regime.
6. Upserts this week’s readings into the Data Table and, if any regime changed, asks OpenAI for a short business-specific interpretation and posts the full brief to a Slack channel.

Setup

1. Create a FRED API key and run the fred-economic-mcp server with it enabled, then set the workflow’s mcp_url to your server’s /mcp endpoint.
2. Create an n8n Data Table named macro_watch with columns series_id, seen_on, value, and regime.
3. Add an OpenAI credential (Chat model) and a Slack credential, then set the target Slack channel (for example #macro).
4. Update the series list and business_context in the Settings to match the indicators you want to track and the business you want the note written for.