Build one AI agent that runs your whole day
A single chat-driven agent with tools for your inbox, calendar, spreadsheets, team chat and the live web — you ask in plain English, it does the task and reports back.
What this looks like
One step on screen at a time. Read it, do it, tap Next.
Build one AI agent that runs your whole day
Step 1 of 20
Understand what you're building before you touch the canvas
Every other automation in this library is a fixed path: this happens, then that happens. An agent is different. You give it a set of tools and a job description, and it decides which tools t
Checkpoint
You can explain, out loud, the difference between a fixed workflow and an agent.
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
Cloud or self-hosted both work. If this is your first build, run the primer first so credentials and the canvas feel familiar.
- API key
An OpenAI key is the smoothest path because the model node and the tool-calling behaviour are the best tested. Any tool-calling model n8n supports will work — only the model node changes.
- Credential
The agent reads and sends mail, reads your calendar, and writes to one spreadsheet. Use a work account if that's where the real work lives, otherwise a personal one is fine for the first build.
- CredentialOptional
Only needed for the team-chat tool. Skip that step entirely if you don't use Slack — the agent still works with one tool fewer.
- Have ready
One tab with three header cells in row 1: date, task, notes. The agent uses it as its own scratchpad and audit trail.
- Time
The agent itself takes ten minutes. Most of the time goes into attaching each tool and writing a system prompt that keeps the agent honest.
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.
4 things to set here- 1Understand what you're building before you touch the canvas — the trigger — everything starts here
- 2Chat Trigger — Create the workflow and add the Chat Trigger
- 3AI Agent — Add the AI Agent node
- 4OpenAI Chat Model — Attach the chat model
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.
- 1Understand what you're building before you touch the canvas
- 2Create the workflow and add the Chat Trigger
- 3Add the AI Agent node
- 4Attach the chat model
- 5Give the agent short-term memory
- 6Write the system prompt — the part that decides everything
- 7Tool 1 — let it read your inbox
- 8Tool 2 — let it draft and send email
- 9Tool 3 — give it your calendar
- 10Tool 4 — let it book the meeting too
- 11Tool 5 — the log sheet
- 12Tool 6 — team chat (skip if you don't use Slack)
- 13Tool 7 — let it look things up on the live web
- 14Tool 8 — arithmetic it can't fumble
- 15Tighten the prompt now that the tools exist
- 16Point a real front door at it (optional)
- 17Test 1 — a read-only question
- 18Test 2 — a two-tool task
- 19Test 3 — the approval guard
- 20Test 4 — the log
If something goes wrong
Everything ready?
Start walkthrough