At Stratagems, we've spent years helping retailers connect the core systems that run their business — eCommerce platforms, ERPs, PIMs, CRMs. On paper, these integrations look simple. In reality, they can be challenging and require attention to detail to make sure everything flows flawlessly.
We love n8n and were early adopters implementing very complex integrations for our customers.
The Reality Check
For example, a common flow we implement is to send an order from an eCommerce platform into an ERP for processing.
At first glance, it's straightforward:
- Get the order details from the webshop.
- Send them into the ERP.
But almost immediately, we face challenges:
Different IDs Everywhere
Product IDs in eCommerce don't match ERP SKUs. We needed constant lookups just to match one system's "Product A" to another's "SKU-12345."
Duplicate Processing
We had to make absolutely sure an order was only processed once. Sending it twice wasn't just inefficient — it caused operational chaos.
Broken Synchronization
Once the ERP created its own order ID, we had to track it. Otherwise, how would we pass shipping updates back to the webshop later?
Repeat Updates
Shipping notifications, returns, cancellations — these all had to be sent once and only once, or risk confusing customers and staff alike.
The Pattern Recognition
And this wasn't a one-off. We hit the same problems every time we built flows with n8n. Products flowing from PIMs, orders moving into ERPs, updates circulating back — the challenges repeated themselves again and again.
"That's when it clicked: we didn't just need to solve the problem once — we needed a framework to solve it every time."
The Birth of 8kit
We started developing patterns to sit alongside n8n. We needed simple to understand, reusable solutions to these recurring pain points that were super-fast, reliable and as much as possible, bulletproof.
Over time, those patterns grew into something bigger: 8kit.
We added locks to stop flows from colliding when two processes touched the same data. We built ID mapping to maintain relationships between objects across systems. We created state tracking to ensure each order, product, or update was only processed once. We introduced ways to cut unnecessary API calls, making integrations faster and more efficient.
What began as patches for individual projects became a framework we now rely on across all our integrations.
Evolution into a Complete Framework
8kit has now evolved into a framework that consists of a full admin interface, service layer and custom n8n Nodes to complete the suite of tools needed to work alongside n8n.
We wanted to make this accessible to all and have released the framework as a self-hosted solution so you can start using it today and fire up a working solution from pre-built Docker images. We are building our cloud offering right now so you can be up and running without the need to self-host your own data storage and service layers.
Why 8kit Matters
8kit is the missing link in n8n flows. It takes care of the hard parts of integration — state, locks, IDs, efficiency — so that anyone can trust their data to flow cleanly and reliably between systems.
We built it because we needed it. Now, it's here to make n8n workflows production-ready for anyone who faces the same challenges we did.
Ready to Transform Your Workflows?
Start building bulletproof integrations with 8kit today. Explore the code, dive into the documentation, and join our community.
Read Documentation