How to Automate Gmail and Slack Knowledge Support?
Description
Email sorting, document Q&A, and meeting booking all run in one flow. Teams use it to route messages, answer questions from PDFs, and schedule time without back and forth. It fits operations and support teams that work in Gmail and Slack.
Incoming emails trigger an AI labeler that adds the right Gmail labels. A webhook can also push key details into Slack so the team sees updates fast. A PDF loader downloads files, splits the text, and stores vector data in Pinecone. A chat entry listens for questions, searches the vector store, and replies using an OpenAI model. For scheduling, a chat agent with memory uses an Anthropic model and calendar tools to check free slots and create events.
Set up Gmail, Slack, OpenAI, Anthropic, Pinecone, and calendar access. Expect big time savings: email triage drops to minutes, Q&A pulls trusted answers from your own files, and booking runs by itself. Use it for inbox routing, policy or whitepaper Q&A, and hands off meeting booking from chat.
Tools Required
What this workflow does?
- Gmail trigger captures new emails and passes content to an AI labeler.
- OpenAI model classifies email topics and the flow applies matching Gmail labels.
- Webhook input routes data and posts structured updates to a Slack channel.
- PDF loader and text splitter prepare documents for search by creating chunks.
- OpenAI embeddings store vectors in Pinecone for fast and relevant retrieval.
- Chat trigger connects user questions to a retrieval QA chain for precise answers.
- Anthropic chat model powers a booking agent that understands user requests.
- Calendar tools check availability and create events without manual steps.
- Conversation memory keeps context so the agent can follow multi step requests.
What are the benefits?
- Reduce manual email triage from 2 hours a day to 10 minutes with AI labels.
- Cut time spent answering document questions by up to 80% using chat over your PDFs.
- Improve label accuracy by up to 90% compared to manual tagging.
- Handle up to 5 times more requests with chat driven scheduling and Q&A.
- Connect Gmail, Slack, Pinecone, and calendars in one orchestration.
- Lower context switching by sending key alerts directly into Slack.
How to set this up?
- Import the template into n8n: Create a new workflow in n8n > Click the three dots menu > Select 'Import from File' > Choose the downloaded JSON file.
- You'll need accounts with Gmail, Slack, OpenAI, Anthropic, Pinecone, Google Calendar and Webhook.site. See the Tools Required section above for links to create accounts with these services.
- In the n8n credentials manager, create a Gmail OAuth2 credential. Connect it to the Gmail trigger and labeling nodes. Make sure the Gmail API is enabled for your Google account.
- Create a Slack OAuth2 credential. Open the Slack Send message node and select your workspace and the target channel. Test with a simple text message.
- Create an OpenAI API Key credential. Attach it to the OpenAI Chat Model and Embeddings nodes. Choose a supported model and keep temperature low for consistent results.
- Create an Anthropic API Key credential. Attach it to the Anthropic Chat Model node used by the booking agent.
- Set up Pinecone: create an index in your Pinecone dashboard. In n8n, add a Pinecone API Key credential, then open the Insert into Pinecone and Read Pinecone nodes to set index name, environment, and namespace. Ensure the embedding dimension matches your chosen embeddings model.
- Connect Google Calendar with an OAuth2 credential. Open the Get calendar availability and Book appointment tools and select your calendar. Pick the correct time zone.
- Open the Webhook node and copy its URL. Send a test request from Webhook.site or Postman that includes a query.email value. Confirm a Slack message appears in the chosen channel.
- Prepare your documents: in the PDFs to download section, provide a file_url and any helpful metadata. Run the path through Download PDF to Insert into Pinecone and confirm new vectors appear in your Pinecone dashboard.
- Start the chat entry: enable the chat trigger endpoint and open the chat interface. Ask a question covered by your PDF and confirm the answer references the right content.
- Send a test email to the connected Gmail inbox. Check that the Assign label with AI node classifies the message and the flow applies the correct Gmail label.
- Ask the chat to find a time and book a meeting. Verify Get calendar availability runs and the event is created in Google Calendar.
- Troubleshoot common issues: fix 401 errors by rechecking API keys, adjust Pinecone dimensions to match your embedding model, reauthorize Gmail or Slack if triggers do not fire, and verify channel IDs and calendar selection.
Need help or want to customize this?
Ask in the Free Futurise Community.
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