Every few minutes this reads new mail in your main inbox, decides what it is and how urgent, and logs it. When someone is waiting on an answer it saves a draft reply in the same thread, with prices, dates and commitments left in square brackets for you to fill. It never sends anything on its own.
Import it into n8n
The short lesson
- Why it matters
- Most of an inbox is sorting. Let a machine sort and a person answer, and you get your attention back.
- Common mistake
- Letting it send replies you haven't seen. Keep it to drafts.
- Next step
- Add customer details from your CRM so the drafts are better informed.
What's inside
- An n8n workflow that triages new mail every ten minutes
- Seven categories and three urgency levels
- Draft replies saved in the right thread, never sent
- A log in Google Sheets, and an alert for urgent mail
What it does
- Every ten minutes it reads new unread mail in your Primary tab.
- The AI decides the category (lead, customer question, bill, scheduling, sales pitch, newsletter, other) and how urgent it is.
- If a person is waiting on an answer, it saves a draft reply in the same thread, leaving prices and dates in brackets.
- Every email is logged to a sheet with a one-line summary.
- Urgent email triggers an alert to you.
Set it up
Pick the path that matches the tools you already use.
- Download the workflow file from the box on this page. It's a .json file.
- In n8n, create a new workflow, open the ⋯ menu at the top right, and choose Import from file. Pick the file you downloaded.
- Nodes that need a login show a warning. Click each one and connect your own account. n8n walks you through it.
- Open the node called Settings and replace the sample values with yours.
- Want Gmail labels too? Add a Gmail Add label step after Read the triage. Label IDs are specific to your account, so they can't be pre-filled in the file.
- Click Execute workflow to run it once with test data and check what comes out.
- When you're happy with it, switch the workflow to Active.
| You'll connect | What it's used for |
|---|---|
| Gmail | Reads new mail, saves drafts and sends you alerts |
| Google Sheets | Keeps the triage log |
| An AI model | Sorts the mail and drafts replies |
| Google Sheet: Triage Log |
|---|
| Date · From · Subject · Category · Urgency · Summary |
Using Claude, Gemini or another model instead of OpenAI? Delete the model node under each AI step, add the one you want, and drag its connector into the AI step.
New to n8n? Start here →The AI prompt
This is exactly what the n8n file sends to the AI. Square brackets are the details your tool fills in for each customer.
Instructions to the AI
You triage email for the owner of [business]. Categories: new_lead, customer_question, invoice_or_bill, scheduling, vendor_or_sales, newsletter_or_spam, other. Urgency: "urgent" (needs a reply today), "normal", or "low". Rules: - needs_reply is true only if a person is waiting on an answer. - Write draft_reply only when needs_reply is true and the category is new_lead, customer_question or scheduling. Under 100 words. - In the draft, put anything you cannot know (prices, availability, dates) in [SQUARE BRACKETS] for the owner to fill in. Never confirm a price, a time or a commitment. Return only JSON.
What you send it each time
From: [from] Subject: [subject] Message: [body] Return JSON with the keys: category, urgency, needs_reply (true or false), summary (one sentence), draft_reply (a string, empty if not needed).
Test it before it touches a customer
- Send yourself five emails: a lead, a customer question, a bill, a sales pitch and something urgent.
- Check each is sorted correctly and that only the right ones get drafts.
- Read a draft. It should leave every price and date in brackets.
This reads your email. Check the privacy terms of the AI service you connect, and keep it away from mailboxes with highly sensitive information unless you're sure it's appropriate.
When you'll outgrow this
This is the right size for most small businesses. These are the signs it's time for something sturdier.
- Several people share the inbox and need conversations assigned, tracked and escalated.
- You need customer context from a CRM or job system inside each draft.
- Email contains sensitive or regulated information that shouldn't leave your own systems.