AI Gmail Triage: Auto-Label Emails and Slack Urgent Alerts

Overview

This workflow automatically triages incoming Gmail emails by classifying them into one of four categories (Urgent, Customer, Invoice, Newsletter) using OpenAI's GPT model. It then applies the corresponding Gmail label to keep your inbox organized. If an email is classified as urgent, it sends a real-time alert to a Slack channel with the sender and subject line. The workflow runs every 5 minutes via the Gmail trigger, ensuring you never miss an important message.

Perfect for professionals who receive a high volume of email and want to reduce manual sorting time. With AI-powered classification, you can customize the categories to match your business needs—such as support tickets, partner inquiries, or internal notifications.

Nodes and Their Roles

Below is a complete list of nodes in the workflow, their types, authentication methods, and what they do.

• New Email (n8n-nodes-base.gmailTrigger) — OAuth2 (Gmail). Polls your Gmail inbox every 5 minutes for new emails. It fetches only new messages since the last run and passes them to the next node.
• Classify (@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.openAi) — API Key (OpenAI). Sends the email's from, subject, and body (first 2000 characters) to the GPT model with a prompt instructing it to return exactly one category word: URGENT, CUSTOMER, INVOICE, or NEWSLETTER. The node is configured to retry up to 3 times with a 5-second delay to handle transient API errors.
• Map to Label (n8n-nodes-base.code) — No auth. A JavaScript code node that takes the category from the OpenAI response, looks up the corresponding Gmail label ID (using placeholder values you must replace), and outputs a JSON object containing messageId, category, labelId, from, and subject.
• Apply Gmail Label (n8n-nodes-base.gmail) — OAuth2 (Gmail). Uses the messageId and labelId from the previous node to add the specified label to the email in Gmail.
• Urgent? (n8n-nodes-base.if) — No auth. A conditional node that checks if the category field equals URGENT. If true, the workflow proceeds to the Slack alert; otherwise, it ends.
• Slack Alert (n8n-nodes-base.slack) — OAuth2 (Slack). Sends a formatted message to a specified Slack channel containing the sender and subject of the urgent email, with a rotating light emoji as a visual alert.

Setup Instructions

Before running the workflow, you need to configure the following credentials and placeholder values:

1. Gmail (OAuth): Connect your Gmail account in n8n credentials. This is required for both the trigger and the label node. Ensure the account has access to the labels you'll create.
2. Create Labels in Gmail: Manually create four labels in your Gmail account: AI/Urgent, AI/Customer, AI/Invoice, AI/Newsletter. To get their IDs, use the n8n Gmail node's label dropdown (or inspect the Gmail API). Copy each label ID and paste it into the corresponding placeholder in the Map to Label code node (REPLACE_WITH_URGENT_LABEL_ID, etc.).
3. OpenAI API Key: Add your OpenAI API key as an n8n credential. The node uses the gpt-5.6-luna model (you may change to a different model). Adjust the four category definitions in the prompt if your business uses different terms.
4. Slack (OAuth): Connect your Slack workspace. Create a Slack channel (e.g., #urgent-emails) and replace REPLACE_WITH_CHANNEL in the Slack Alert node with the channel ID (or name).
5. Activate the workflow: After replacing all placeholders, activate the workflow and send test emails to verify classification and alerting.

Use Cases and Variations

• Customer Support: Adapt the categories to classify support tickets, billing issues, and feature requests. Urgent alerts could notify your support team in Slack instantly.
• Sales Pipeline: Use categories like Lead, Follow-up, Closed Won, Meeting Request. Route high-priority leads to a sales channel.
• Personal Inbox: Filter newsletters, receipts, and personal messages. Send urgent family or work emails to your phone via Slack.
• Multi-account: Duplicate the workflow for multiple Gmail accounts by using different credentials and channels.
• Other Actions: Instead of Slack alerts, you could create a Trello card, send an SMS via Twilio, or log the email to a Google Sheet for later analysis.

This template is a solid foundation for AI-powered email automation. Customize the prompt, categories, and downstream actions to fit your workflow perfectly.

{
  "name": "AI Gmail Triage",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "parameters": {
        "content": "## AI Email Triage: Auto-Label Gmail + Urgent Alerts\n\nOpen your inbox to find everything pre-sorted: customer emails labeled, invoices filed, newsletters out of the way - and anything urgent already waiting in Slack.\n\n**Setup time:** 15 minutes  ·  **Level:** Intermediate\n\n**You'll need accounts/credentials for:** Gmail, OpenAI, Slack\n\n**Replace these before running:**\n- `REPLACE_WITH_URGENT_LABEL_ID`\n- `REPLACE_WITH_CUSTOMER_LABEL_ID`\n- `REPLACE_WITH_INVOICE_LABEL_ID`\n- `REPLACE_WITH_NEWSLETTER_LABEL_ID`\n- `REPLACE_WITH_CHANNEL`\n\n**Setup steps:**\n1. Connect Gmail (OAuth) in the trigger and the label node.\n2. In Gmail, create labels: AI/Urgent, AI/Customer, AI/Invoice, AI/Newsletter. Get their IDs from the n8n Gmail node's label dropdown and paste them into the Code node mapping.\n3. Add your OpenAI API key, and adjust the four category definitions in the prompt to your business.\n4. Connect Slack for urgent alerts. Activate and send yourself test emails.\n\nFree templates and updates: navkhan103.github.io",
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      },
      "id": "sticky-setup",
      "name": "Setup — read me first",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote",
      "typeVersion": 1,
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    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "content": "### How it runs\n\nStarts from **New Email**.\n\n1. A Gmail Trigger polls for new inbox messages every few minutes.\n2. An OpenAI node classifies the email into one of four categories, replying with a single word.\n3. A Code node maps the category to your Gmail label ID.\n4. A Gmail node applies the label.\n5. An IF node routes Urgent emails to a Slack alert with sender and subject.",
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    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "content": "### If something breaks\n\nThe read and AI nodes here **retry 3× automatically** (5s apart), which absorbs rate limits and brief timeouts.\n\nNodes that **send or write deliberately do not retry** — a send that reached the far end but lost its response would otherwise fire twice, so you'd get duplicate messages or duplicate rows.\n\nTo be told when one of those fails, build a workflow starting with an **Error Trigger** node that posts to Slack or email, then set it under **three-dot menu > Settings > Error Workflow**. Do it once and point every workflow at it.",
        "height": 400,
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// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)