AI-Powered Gmail Email Classifier & Labeler

Overview

This workflow automatically monitors your Gmail inbox for new emails, retrieves the full email content, and uses an AI agent powered by Anthropic's Claude to classify each email into a predefined Gmail label. It also checks prior email history with the sender to improve classification accuracy. Finally, it applies the chosen label to the email, helping you organize your inbox without manual effort.

How It Works

1. Gmail Trigger — Polls Gmail every minute for new emails (OAuth2).
2. Gmail — Fetches the full email details (headers, body, etc.) using the message ID from the trigger (OAuth2).
3. AI Agent — Orchestrates the classification process. It uses the Anthropic Chat Model as its language model and the Structured Output Parser to extract the label ID. The agent also has access to two Gmail tools to check prior email history.
4. Anthropic Chat Model — The LLM (Claude Sonnet 4) that analyzes the email content and history to decide the best label (API Key auth).
5. Structured Output Parser — Ensures the AI's response is a valid JSON object containing the label ID (No auth).
6. Get Email — A Gmail tool used by the AI agent to search for prior emails from the sender (OAuth2).
7. Check Sent — A Gmail tool used by the AI agent to check if the user has previously sent emails to the sender (OAuth2).
8. Gmail1 — Applies the chosen label to the original email (OAuth2).

Node Details

• Gmail Trigger (OAuth2) — Polls Gmail every minute for new messages. No filters are set, so it watches the entire inbox.
• Gmail (OAuth2) — Uses the get operation to retrieve the full email object by messageId. The simple option is disabled to get the raw JSON.
• Anthropic Chat Model (API Key auth) — Configured to use the claude-sonnet-4-20250514 model with default options.
• AI Agent (No auth) — Contains a detailed system message that instructs the AI to classify emails into one of six labels (To Respond, FYI, Comment, Notification, Meeting Update, Marketing) based on content, headers, and prior email history. It uses the text input "Run the task." and has an output parser attached.
• Structured Output Parser (No auth) — Expects a JSON schema with keys label and label ID. This forces the AI to output a clean JSON object.
• Get Email (OAuth2) — Gmail tool that searches for emails from the sender using the from: query. It returns all matching emails (no limit).
• Check Sent (OAuth2) — Gmail tool that searches for emails sent to the sender in the SENT folder, using the to: query.
• Gmail1 (OAuth2) — Uses the addLabels operation to apply the label ID returned by the AI agent to the original email.

Setup Instructions

1. Gmail OAuth2 Credentials — You need a Google Cloud project with the Gmail API enabled. Create OAuth2 credentials (Desktop app or Web application) and add them in n8n under Credentials > Google. The workflow uses OAuth2 for all Gmail nodes.
2. Anthropic API Key — Sign up at Anthropic and generate an API key. Add it in n8n under Credentials > Anthropic.
3. Gmail Labels — The workflow expects specific label IDs (e.g., Label_5151750749488724401 for "To Respond"). You must create these labels in your Gmail account and note their IDs. Alternatively, you can modify the system message in the AI Agent node to use your own label names/IDs.
4. Activate the workflow — Once credentials are set and labels exist, activate the workflow. It will start polling Gmail and classifying new emails.

Use Cases & Variations

• Personal Inbox Zero — Automatically sort newsletters, notifications, and actionable emails into separate folders.
• Sales Pipeline Management — Classify incoming leads as "To Respond" or "Marketing" based on prior contact.
• Support Ticket Triage — Route customer emails to appropriate labels based on content and history.
• Custom Labels — Modify the AI agent's system prompt to use your own set of labels (e.g., "Urgent", "Read Later", "Archive").
• Integration with Other Tools — After labeling, you could add nodes to send Slack notifications, create tasks in Notion, or log to a spreadsheet.

{
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  "meta": {
    "instanceId": "[REDACTED_INSTANCE_ID]",
    "templateCredsSetupCompleted": true
  },
  "name": "Email Manager",
  "tags": [
    {
      "id": "[REDACTED_TAG_ID]",
      "name": "Personal Assistant",
      "createdAt": "2025-05-28T13:58:43.876Z",
      "updatedAt": "2025-05-28T13:58:43.876Z"
    }
  ],
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "5e01a927-caf7-41ad-aca7-d7504e313564",
      "name": "Gmail Trigger",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.gmailTrigger",
      "position": [
        -20,
        -60
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "filters": {},
        "pollTimes": {
          "item": [
            {
              "mode": "everyMinute"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "credentials": {
        "gmailOAuth2": {
          "id": "credential-id",
          "name": "gmailOAuth2 Credential"
        }
      },
      "typeVersion": 1.2
    },
    {
      "id": "a8644856-a8bf-49de-84a7-3fd9f93550d3",
      "name": "Gmail",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.gmail",
      "position": [
        200,
        -20
      ],
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)