Do something immediately after a node is created

Hell this would have helped:

Add 'insert/update post' op to hook_nodeapi
http://drupal.org/node/27007

Why couldn't it have gone in two years ago!? JVanDyk should have forked Drupal ;-)

His book would have been "Introduction to Vrupal 1"

Oh... needless panic. For my simple needs this wasn't a problem.

global $user; if ($user->uid==1)  drupal_set_message('<pre>' . print_r($node, TRUE) . '</pre>');
gives us:

stdClass Object
(
[nid] => 588
[vid] => 935
[uid] => 1
[created] => 1195683405
[type] => message
[changed] => 1195683405
...
)

Yay, we get the nid on the insert -- phew.

This Agaric post goes best with:
http://agaricdesign.com/note/copy-taxonomy-terms-from-one-node-another

(That should be the Related Content tag-- 'goes best with', heh.)

Resolution

Act on $op == 'insert' or $op == 'update' to take actions on or related to Drupal nodes immediately after they are inserted or updated.