Stage 1 · Lesson 4 of 8
HTTP requests, methods and status codes
When no ready-made exists for an app, you talk to its API directly. You do this with an step, called a node in n8n and a module in Make. A request has four parts.
The method says what you want: GET to read, POST to create, PUT or PATCH to update, to remove. The URL says where. carry extra details, such as Content-Type (the format of your data) and Authorization (who you are).
Often there is also a JSON body holding the data itself. The answer comes back with a status code, a three-digit number. 2xx means success.
4xx means your request was wrong: 400 bad data, 401 not authenticated (the app does not know who you are), 403 not allowed, 404 not found, 429 too many requests. 5xx means the failed. Status codes are how you debug, and later they decide which errors to retry.
Common trapretrying a 400 forever; it will never succeed without a fix.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come with the full roadmap. Unlock
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- GuideFreeMDN: HTTP
Mozilla · Beginner
Read the overview, methods, status codes and headers pages: the HTTP every automation tool sits on
- GuideFreeJavaScript.info
Ilya Kantor
The JSON methods and objects chapters teach you to read and reshape the data each step passes on
Practise
Keep handy
Also worth your time
Status codes, pagination, idempotency and rate limits from the API side, so you know what to expect as a caller