Create Deal

The Create Deal node group allows you to create deals in Countertop Studio using n8n in a structured, production-ready way.

The integration follows a strict separation of responsibilities:

Normalize Deal → Structural transformation only
Validate Deal → Business rule validation
Send Deal → Secure API transmission

This separation prevents silent errors, makes debugging simple, and ensures that only valid data reaches the API.

Countertop Studio is currently in the alpha phase. To get access to the API, Webhook system and n8n integration, please reach out to our support team. In the beta phase, you'll be able to create and manage secrets and permissions directly in your account.

Recommended Workflow Structure

The nodes should always be arranged in this order:

Why this structure?

Normalize prepares the data.
Validate enforces API rules.
Send only processes validated items.
Invalid data never reaches the API.
Errors are visible and actionable.

Never connect Normalize → Send directly in production.

Normalize Deal

The Normalize Deal node transforms incoming workflow data into the structure expected by the Countertop Studio API.

It does NOT perform business validation.

What Normalize Does

Maps fields using n8n expressions
Trims whitespace from strings
Converts empty strings to null
Builds the correct API payload structure
Supports multiple customers

What Normalize Does NOT Do

It does not check required fields
It does not validate UUIDs
It does not block invalid customer combinations
It does not enforce business logic

All validation is handled in the Validate Deal node.

Working with Customers

You can attach customers to a deal in two different ways.

Option 1: Existing Customers (UUIDs)

Use this when customers already exist in Countertop Studio.

Example output structure:

{
  "customer_ids": ["uuid-1", "uuid-2"]
}

You may provide multiple UUIDs.

Option 2: New Customer Objects

Use this when creating customers along with the deal.

Example output structure:

{
  "customers": [
    {
      "last_name": "John",
      "first_name": "Doe"
      //.. more data of this user
    },
    {
      "last_name": "Marie",
      "first_name": "Doe"
      //.. more data of this user
    }
  ]
}

You may provide multiple customer objects.

Important API Rule

The API supports:

Multiple UUIDs
OR
Multiple customer objects

It does NOT support mixing both in a single request.

If both customer_ids and customers are present, validation will fail.

Normalize will not block this. Validate will.

Validate Deal

The Validate Deal node is responsible for enforcing business rules.

It provides two outputs:

Valid
Invalid

Only Valid items should continue to Send Deal.

Deal Validation Rules

name must be present
volume must be an integer (if provided)
employee_id must be a valid UUID (if provided)

Customer Validation Rules

customer_ids must be an array of valid UUIDs
customers must be an array of objects
If customers are used:
- Each customer must include last_name
customer_ids and customers cannot be used together
(Optional) At least one customer must be present

If any rule fails, the item is routed to Invalid.

Send Deal

The Send Deal node sends validated deals to the Countertop Studio API.

Each item results in exactly one HTTP request.

What Send Does

Sends full customer_ids arrays
Sends full customers arrays
Automatically attaches:
- X-Api-Key
- X-Department-Id
- X-Request-Id
Separates responses into:
- Sent
- Failed

Send assumes that validation has already been completed.

It does not repeat validation logic.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 1: Skipping Validation

Connecting Normalize Deal directly to Send Deal bypasses business validation. This can result in API errors, rejected requests, and unclear failures. Always place Validate Deal between Normalize and Send.