June 25, 2026·8 min read

ClickUp + n8n + Spunto: spawn dev environments automatically from your tickets

When a ticket moves to "In Progress", a full dev environment appears. When it's done, it disappears. Here's how to wire it up in 20 minutes.

Mathieu

Founder, Spunto

ClickUp + n8n + Spunto: spawn dev environments automatically from your tickets

You pick up a ticket. You clone the repo. You install dependencies. You realise the environment needs a specific Node version. Twenty minutes later you haven't written a single line of code.

What if the dev environment was just there the moment you dragged the ticket to "In Progress" — a full VS Code instance in your browser, already cloned, already configured?

That's what this automation does. When a ClickUp task status changes to In Progress, an n8n workflow calls the Spunto API to spawn a worker. When the task moves to Done (or In Review), the same workflow deletes it. No wasted compute, no context-switching tax.

The full automation — one webhook, two branches, zero manual setup

A Spunto account with at least one node online and a project configured
An n8n instance — self-hosted or cloud (the self-hosted n8n guide covers deploying it as a Spunto service)
A ClickUp workspace with admin access (to configure webhooks)

Go to Dashboard → Account settings → API keys and create a new key.

Name it something descriptive like n8n-clickup-automation. Under Scopes, select Workers: read and Workers: write — nothing else is needed.

Spunto account settings showing the API key creation form with Workers: read and Workers: write scopes selected — Two scopes are enough — Workers read + write

Copy the token when it appears — it's only shown once. It looks like spk_....

You'll also need two IDs from the Spunto dashboard URL:

Value	Where to find it
`ORG_ID`	The part after `/dashboard/` in the URL (e.g. `gXD0k-dQd...`)
`PROJECT_ID`	The part after `/projects/` (e.g. `SHwALHW1Z0...`)

In n8n, create a new workflow and import the JSON below (click ⋯ → Import from JSON in the top bar):

{
  "name": "ClickUp → Spunto Workers",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "ClickUp Webhook",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.webhook",
      "typeVersion": 2,
      "position": [240, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "path": "clickup-spunto",
        "responseMode": "onReceived",
        "responseData": "firstEntryJson"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Extract fields",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.set",
      "typeVersion": 3,
      "position": [460, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "mode": "manual",
        "assignments": {
          "assignments": [
            {
              "name": "status",
              "value": "={{ $json.history_items[0].after.status.toLowerCase() }}",
              "type": "string"
            },
            {
              "name": "taskId",
              "value": "={{ $json.task_id }}",
              "type": "string"
            },
            {
              "name": "taskName",
              "value": "={{ $json.task.name }}",
              "type": "string"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Route by status",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.switch",
      "typeVersion": 3,
      "position": [680, 300],
      "parameters": {
        "mode": "rules",
        "dataType": "string",
        "value1": "={{ $json.status }}",
        "rules": {
          "rules": [
            { "operation": "equals", "value2": "in progress", "output": 0 },
            { "operation": "equals", "value2": "done", "output": 1 },
            { "operation": "equals", "value2": "in review", "output": 1 }
          ]
        },
        "fallbackOutput": "none"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Spawn worker",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4,
      "position": [900, 160],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "POST",
        "url": "https://spunto.net/api/orgs/ORG_ID/projects/PROJECT_ID/workers",
        "authentication": "genericCredentialType",
        "genericAuthType": "httpHeaderAuth",
        "options": {},
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            { "name": "Authorization", "value": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
          ]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Comment worker URL",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4,
      "position": [1120, 160],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "POST",
        "url": "=https://api.clickup.com/api/v2/task/{{ $('Extract fields').item.json.taskId }}/comment",
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            { "name": "Authorization", "value": "YOUR_CLICKUP_TOKEN" },
            { "name": "Content-Type", "value": "application/json" }
          ]
        },
        "sendBody": true,
        "bodyParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "comment_text",
              "value": "=🚀 Worker spawned by Spunto\\nID: {{ $('Spawn worker').item.json.id }}\\nURL: {{ $('Spawn worker').item.json.url }}"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Get task comments",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4,
      "position": [900, 440],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "=https://api.clickup.com/api/v2/task/{{ $json.taskId }}/comment",
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            { "name": "Authorization", "value": "YOUR_CLICKUP_TOKEN" }
          ]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Extract worker ID",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code",
      "typeVersion": 2,
      "position": [1120, 440],
      "parameters": {
        "jsCode": "const comments = $input.item.json.comments || [];\nconst match = comments\n  .map(c => c.comment_text)\n  .find(t => t && t.includes('ID: '));\nif (!match) throw new Error('No Spunto worker comment found on this task');\nconst workerId = match.match(/ID: ([\\\\w-]+)/)?.[1];\nreturn [{ json: { workerId } }];"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Delete worker",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4,
      "position": [1340, 440],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "DELETE",
        "url": "=https://spunto.net/api/orgs/ORG_ID/projects/PROJECT_ID/workers/{{ $json.workerId }}",
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            { "name": "Authorization", "value": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {
    "ClickUp Webhook": { "main": [[{ "node": "Extract fields", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]] },
    "Extract fields": { "main": [[{ "node": "Route by status", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]] },
    "Route by status": {
      "main": [
        [{ "node": "Spawn worker", "type": "main", "index": 0 }],
        [{ "node": "Get task comments", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]
      ]
    },
    "Spawn worker": { "main": [[{ "node": "Comment worker URL", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]] },
    "Get task comments": { "main": [[{ "node": "Extract worker ID", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]] },
    "Extract worker ID": { "main": [[{ "node": "Delete worker", "type": "main", "index": 0 }]] }
  }
}

Then replace the three placeholder values before activating:

Placeholder	Replace with
`ORG_ID`	Your Spunto organization ID
`PROJECT_ID`	Your Spunto project ID
`YOUR_API_KEY`	The `spk_...` key you just created
`YOUR_CLICKUP_TOKEN`	Your ClickUp personal API token (from ClickUp → Profile → Apps)

Tip

In n8n you can store credentials centrally (Header Auth, HTTP Request) instead of hardcoding tokens per node — the workflow above uses inline headers for clarity, but using n8n Credentials is better practice for shared workflows.

In ClickUp, go to Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → + New webhook:

Endpoint: copy the webhook URL from the ClickUp Webhook n8n node (looks like https://your-n8n.domain/webhook/clickup-spunto)
Status: Active
Events: check Task status updated
Space / Folder / List: scope it to the list where your dev tickets live

Save. ClickUp will start sending a POST to n8n every time a task status changes in that list.

Note

ClickUp sends the webhook for every status change in the scoped list, not just the two you care about. The Route by status switch node handles this — events for any other status fall through the none fallback and do nothing.

In n8n, toggle the workflow to Active
In ClickUp, move a test ticket to In Progress
Check the n8n execution log — you should see a green run with all nodes passing
In Spunto, go to your project — a new worker named after the project should appear

Spunto project page showing a worker was spawned, with the New workspace button visible — The project page in Spunto — a worker appears automatically when the ticket moves

Open the worker and click Open in browser — you get a full VS Code environment, cloned and ready.

When you move the ticket to Done, check the n8n log again — you'll see the delete branch run, the worker disappears from Spunto, and the compute is freed.

The automation uses ClickUp task comments as a lightweight state store:

On spawn: the workflow posts a comment on the task — 🚀 Worker spawned by Spunto\nID: abc123\nURL: https://...
On delete: the workflow fetches all comments on the task, finds the one containing ID: , extracts the worker ID, and calls DELETE /workers/:id

This is simple and auditable — anyone on the team can see the worker URL directly in the task, and the worker ID is always traceable to its ticket.

Tip

If your team uses a ClickUp custom field for worker IDs instead (cleaner, queryable), replace the Comment worker URL node with an HTTP Request that PATCHes the custom field value, and replace Get task comments + Extract worker ID with a single GET on the task that reads the custom field directly.

The workflow routes on "in progress" and "done" / "in review". These are ClickUp's default status names — but your workspace may use different names ("development", "qa", "complete", etc.).

To change them, open the Route by status switch node in n8n and update the string values. The comparison is case-insensitive because the Extract fields node lowercases the status first.

To add a third trigger (e.g. "testing" → stop the worker but keep it, to resume later), add a third output to the switch and connect it to a POST /workers/:id/stop HTTP request instead of delete.

Multiple projects: parameterise the workflow with a ClickUp custom field that maps list IDs to Spunto project IDs — one workflow handles all your dev lists
Notify on ready: Spunto workers go through a setup phase (image build, repo clone). Poll GET /workers/:id until status == "running" before posting the comment, so the URL in the ticket is always clickable immediately
Secrets per ticket: use Spunto's project secrets API to inject the ClickUp task ID as CLICKUP_TASK_ID env var inside the worker — handy for scripts that need to update the ticket from inside the dev environment

Mathieu

Founder, Spunto

Building Spunto — self-hosted dev environments for engineers who want their compute to work for them, not against them.

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