Emails turned into Notion tasks by AI with Airtable routes

Emails turned into Notion tasks by AI with Airtable routes

An n8n workflow that turns emails into Notion tasks. A mail sent to your address with a plus sign and a route id picks a row in
an Airtable table. That row holds the Notion database and token to use. One AI agent writes a task title and description, a
second writes a summary, and both go into a new Notion page.

What is inside

• workflow.json: the workflow as n8n exports it, 26 nodes. Three are sticky notes, and three more form a label helper that
  starts switched off. It holds no credential.
• README.md: these notes.

What we changed from the original copy

• The original used gpt-4o, which retires on 14 January 2027. Both agents now use gpt-5.6-terra.
• Two calculator tools sat switched off under the agents. They are gone.
• The Gmail label ids, the Airtable base and the routes table were private. They are now placeholders such as
  <YOUR_ERROR_LABEL_ID> and <YOUR_AIRTABLE_BASE_ID>.
• The route filter read the plus address with a pattern that threw an error on a mail with no plus sign. It now skips such a
  mail.
• The step that builds the Notion page was rewritten. It cuts long text into pieces of 1900 characters, and it stops with a
  clear message when the route has no usable database link.
• The texts of the two notification mails were rewritten.
• The label helper still starts switched off, and its steps are in a sticky note.
• Several nodes were renamed to say what they do, and the names no longer hold spaced hyphens. The wiring is unchanged.

Before you start

• A Gmail mailbox that accepts plus addresses, a Gmail credential in n8n and two labels called Error and Processed.
• An Airtable token and a base with a table of routes. The columns are Name, Token, NotionDatabase, Email Alias and Active, and
  optionally User and Status. Active is a checkbox.
• An OpenAI API key.
• A Notion integration token for each route, and a database shared with it that has a title property called Name.

Set it up

1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick workflow.json.
2. Add a Gmail credential to Gmail Trigger and to the five other Gmail nodes.
3. Turn off Gmail Trigger and turn on Run Label Setup. Run the workflow once, then copy the two label ids from
   Find Both Labels into Label IDs. Turn Run Label Setup off and Gmail Trigger on.
4. In Get Route by ID and Deactivate Route, add an Airtable credential and replace <YOUR_AIRTABLE_BASE_ID> and
   <YOUR_ROUTES_TABLE_ID>.
5. Add an OpenAI credential to Task Model and Summary Model.
6. Add one row to the routes table with the Notion token, the link of the Notion database and your address with a plus sign
   and the row's record id. Tick Active, publish the workflow and send a test mail.

How a run goes

1. Gmail Trigger finds a new mail in the inbox. Skip Handled Mails drops mails that already have an Error or Processed
   label, and mails with no plus address.
2. Extract Route ID takes the text between the plus sign and the at sign. Get Route by ID reads that row from Airtable.
   A missing row goes to Tell Sender No Route, and the mail gets the Error label.
3. Active Routes Only lets the route through when Active is ticked. A route that is off drops the mail with no reply and no
   label.
4. Generate Actionable Task writes the title, the description and the bullet points. Summarize Email writes the summary
   and the sender, subject and date lines.
5. Format Notion Page Blocks builds the page body, and Create Notion Page posts it to Notion with the route's token.
   Label as Processed marks the mail.
6. If the post fails, Deactivate Route unticks Active, Tell Sender Route Is Off mails the sender and Label as Error marks
   the mail.

Change the result

• The rules for the title and the description: the system message of Generate Actionable Task.
• The summary and the header lines: the system message of Summarize Email.
• The layout of the page: Format Notion Page Blocks.
• The reply texts: Tell Sender No Route and Tell Sender Route Is Off.
• The models: Task Model and Summary Model.
• Which mails are read: Gmail Trigger and Skip Handled Mails.

Good to know

• The routes table holds Notion tokens, so keep that base private.
• The page title is written to a property called Name. A database that renamed it needs a change in
  Format Notion Page Blocks.
• When a route is missing or fails, the workflow mails the sender. Check that this is what you want before you give the
  address to others.
• The mail text goes to OpenAI, to Notion and to Airtable, and the Notion token sits in your Airtable table.
• Mindket did not run this workflow against Gmail, Airtable, OpenAI or Notion. The Notion version header 2022-06-28 and the
  1900 character limit for a text block were not checked against Notion's current API.