FlowStep
← All walkthroughs
FreeGmailOpenAISlack

Let AI triage your inbox for you

Read each new email, have a model classify it and write a one-line summary, then label, archive or escalate it automatically — and watch a messy inbox sort itself.

30 minIntermediate13 steps
Start walkthrough

What this looks like

One step on screen at a time. Read it, do it, tap Next.

Let AI triage your inbox for you

Step 1 of 13

01 / 13Gmail Trigger

Create the workflow and watch the mailbox

Create a workflow and add a Gmail Trigger. Poll every few minutes and narrow it to unread mail in the inbox so you are not reprocessing your archive.

Checkpoint

The trigger is set to poll with a search filter.

Back
Next

Before you begin

Tick these off as you sort them. Stopping halfway to create an account is how a fifteen-minute build becomes an hour.

0 of 8 ready

Ticks are saved on this device, so you can come back to them.

  • Account

    Ideally not your only mailbox on the first run. Test against a secondary account or a filtered subset until you trust the classifier.

  • Have ready

    Create these by hand first: Needs Reply, FYI, Newsletter, Receipt. The node can only apply labels that already exist.

  • API key

    Every email costs one small model call. A cheap fast model is the right choice here.

  • CredentialOptional

    Optional, but it is what turns triage from tidying into something you actually notice.

  • Know-how

    You will run this in 'label only' mode for a day before letting it archive anything. That step is not optional in practice.

  • Time

    The classifier prompt is where the time goes, and it is time well spent.

The basics — ticked once, remembered everywhere

  • Account

    Either the hosted version or a self-hosted install. Everything here works the same on both — the only visible difference is the shape of your webhook URLs.

    Create a workspace
  • Know-how

    Adding a node, connecting two of them, and pressing Execute. If any of that is new, the free primer covers it in about ten minutes.

  • Credential

    You will paste at least one secret during setup. A password manager beats a notes app, and it stops you pasting a live key into a chat window by accident.

The shape of the workflow

The nodes you will end up with, left to right, in the order you add them.

Gmail TriggerBasic LLM ChainCodeSwitchGmailSlackGmail
The finished Let AI triage your inbox for you workflow on the n8n canvas4 things to set here
  1. 1Gmail Trigger — the trigger — everything starts here
  2. 2Gmail Trigger — Fetch a real email
  3. 3Basic LLM Chain — Add the AI classifier
  4. 4Basic LLM Chain — Write the classification prompt
The finished workflow on the n8n canvasTap to enlarge

Skip the node hunting

Import a starter file with every node for this build already on the canvas, named after its step and wired in order, each one carrying a sticky note with the values to enter. You still connect your own accounts and fill the fields — that is what the walkthrough takes you through — but you never start at a blank canvas.

In n8n: Workflows → Import from file.

What you will build

Jump straight to any step, or print the list and tick it off beside your n8n tab.

  1. 1Create the workflow and watch the mailbox
  2. 2Fetch a real email
  3. 3Add the AI classifier
  4. 4Write the classification prompt
  5. 5Turn the reply into usable fields
  6. 6Route by category with a Switch node
  7. 7Label each branch
  8. 8Escalate the urgent ones
  9. 9Run in label-only mode for a day
  10. 10Only now, let it archive
  11. 11Send yourself four emails
  12. 12Send a deliberately ambiguous one
  13. 13Read the classifier output

If something goes wrong

Everything ready?

Start walkthrough