AI Job Application Auto-Reply from Gmail

Overview

This workflow automates the process of replying to job applications received via email. When a new email arrives in your Gmail inbox that contains "Job Application" in the subject line, the workflow extracts the candidate's details, uses OpenAI's GPT-4o to generate a professional, courteous reply, and sends it automatically from your company email address. It's ideal for HR teams, startups, or anyone who wants to provide instant acknowledgment to applicants without manual effort.

How It Works

Below is a step-by-step breakdown of every functional node in the workflow:

1. Gmail Trigger (OAuth2) — Monitors your Gmail inbox for new emails. It is configured to watch for emails with a specific label (e.g., "job-applications") and polls every minute. You must set up Gmail forwarding from your custom domain email (e.g., hello@yourcompany.com) to your Gmail address, and create a Gmail filter to apply the label and mark emails as unread.

2. If (No auth) — Checks whether the email subject contains the phrase "job application" (case-insensitive). Only emails that pass this condition proceed to the next steps; others are sent to a "No Operation" node and ignored.

3. Edit Fields (No auth) — Prepares the data for the AI agent by extracting three fields:

   • candidateEmail: taken from the email's reply-to address
   • subject: the original email subject
   • companyEmail: taken from the email's "to" address (your receiving email)

4. AI Agent (No auth) — The core AI node. It receives the prepared data and uses a system prompt that instructs the model to act as an HR assistant for Luminar Technology. The prompt defines rules for generating a reply (address by name, mention position, thank, keep tone professional, output JSON with subject and body). The agent uses the connected OpenAI Chat Model and Structured Output Parser.

5. OpenAI Chat Model (API Key auth) — The language model that powers the AI Agent. It is set to use gpt-4o (can be changed). You need a valid OpenAI API key stored in your n8n credentials.

6. Structured Output Parser (No auth) — Ensures the AI returns a clean JSON object with subject and body fields. This prevents malformed responses and guarantees compatibility with the email sending node.

7. Send an Email (SMTP credentials) — Sends the AI-generated reply. It uses the toEmail (candidate's email), fromEmail (your company email), subject and body from the AI output. The email is sent as plain text. You must configure SMTP credentials (e.g., host, port, username, password) for your email provider (e.g., Titan Email, Gmail SMTP, etc.).

8. No Operation, do nothing (No auth) — A placeholder node that receives emails that do not match the job application filter. It does nothing, effectively discarding those emails.

Setup Instructions

To use this workflow, you need the following accounts and credentials:

• Gmail account — For the Gmail Trigger. You must authorize n8n to access your Gmail inbox (OAuth2). Also, if you use a custom domain email (e.g., hello@yourcompany.com), set up forwarding from that domain to your Gmail address and create a Gmail filter to label incoming forwarded emails as "job-applications" and mark them as unread.
• OpenAI account — Obtain an API key from platform.openai.com. Store it as an n8n credential of type "OpenAI".
• SMTP credentials — For sending emails. If you use Gmail's SMTP, you can use an App Password. For other providers (e.g., Titan Email, Outlook), use the SMTP host, port, and login details. Store these as an n8n credential of type "SMTP".

Use Cases & Variations

• Customize the filter: Change the condition in the If node to match other keywords like "Application", "CV", "Resume", or use more complex logic (e.g., AND/OR conditions).
• Change the AI model: In the OpenAI Chat Model node, switch to gpt-3.5-turbo for lower cost or gpt-4 for higher quality.
• Modify the reply tone: Edit the system prompt in the AI Agent node to match your company's voice (e.g., more formal, more friendly, include specific next steps).
• Add attachments or HTML formatting: In the Send an Email node, change the email format to HTML and include a rich signature or company logo.
• Log replies to a spreadsheet: Insert a Google Sheets node after the AI Agent to record each reply for tracking.
• Handle multiple email addresses: Adjust the Edit Fields node to extract the candidate email from the email body if forwarding changes the From field.

{
  "id": "HApWnFS5OFYeT2mU",
  "meta": {
    "instanceId": "cd85e2ca4f76efc43b2440fb23c17eaa4937a3abf54776244bd0a689d171e1bd",
    "templateCredsSetupCompleted": true
  },
  "name": "EmailAutoReply",
  "tags": [],
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "a5d6cb90-5aee-4269-b9f2-71e11e68d6df",
      "name": "Gmail Trigger",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.gmailTrigger",
      "position": [
        -96,
        80
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "simple": false,
        "filters": {
          "labelIds": [
            "Label_2862649459238172600"
          ]
        },
        "options": {},
        "pollTimes": {
          "item": [
            {
              "mode": "everyMinute"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "credentials": {
        "gmailOAuth2": {
          "id": "4VIIUTF24mDLFogT",
          "name": "Gmail account"
        }
      },
      "typeVersion": 1.3
    },
    {
      "id": "0f62160f-d729-4f70-8a3b-783749fbf418",
      "name": "OpenAI Chat Model",
      "type": "@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.lmChatOpenAi",
      "position": [
        768,
        240
      ],
      "parameters": {
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)