Automatic Email Categorization & Labeling in Zoho Mail with GPT-4o Mini

This n8n workflow automates the process of categorizing and labeling incoming emails in Zoho Mail using the power of a large language model (LLM) like GPT-4o Mini via OpenRouter. It listens for new emails, analyzes their content, and then suggests appropriate labels based on the email's context.

What it does

This workflow streamlines your email management by:

1. Monitoring New Emails: It continuously checks a specified IMAP inbox for new emails.
2. Extracting Email Content: For each new email, it extracts the sender, subject, and body content.
3. Generating Classification Prompt: It constructs a prompt for an AI model, asking it to classify the email into categories like "Sales," "Support," "Marketing," or "General," and suggest relevant labels.
4. AI-Powered Categorization: It sends the email content and prompt to an OpenRouter Chat Model (configured to use an LLM like GPT-4o Mini) to get a classification and suggested labels.
5. Processing AI Response: It parses the AI's response to extract the suggested category and labels.
6. Applying Labels (Placeholder): The workflow currently includes a "No Operation" node as a placeholder for applying the derived labels to the email in Zoho Mail. This step needs to be implemented with a Zoho Mail node or similar action to fully integrate the labeling.

Prerequisites/Requirements

To use this workflow, you will need:

• n8n Instance: A running instance of n8n.
• IMAP Email Account: Access to an IMAP-enabled email account (e.g., Zoho Mail, Gmail, Outlook). You'll need the IMAP credentials.
• OpenRouter Account: An OpenRouter API key to access various large language models, such as GPT-4o Mini.
• Zoho Mail Account (for full integration): While the current workflow identifies labels, applying them to Zoho Mail would require a Zoho Mail node and credentials, which are not explicitly included but are the intended next step.

Setup/Usage

1. Import the Workflow:

   • Download the provided JSON file.
   • In your n8n instance, click "Workflows" in the left sidebar.
   • Click "New" and then "Import from JSON".
   • Paste the JSON content or upload the file.

2. Configure Credentials:

   • Email Trigger (IMAP):
     • Click on the "Email Trigger (IMAP)" node.
     • Under "Credentials", select an existing IMAP credential or create a new one. Provide your IMAP server, port, username, and password.
     • Specify the "Folder" to monitor (e.g., "INBOX").
   • OpenRouter Chat Model:
     • Click on the "OpenRouter Chat Model" node.
     • Under "Credentials", select an existing OpenRouter credential or create a new one. Provide your OpenRouter API key.
     • Ensure the "Model" is set to your preferred LLM (e.g., openai/gpt-4o-mini).

3. Review and Customize Code Nodes:

   • Code Node (Prepare Prompt): This node constructs the prompt for the AI. You can modify the prompt to refine the categorization instructions or add more context.
   • Code Node (Process AI Response): This node parses the JSON output from the AI. If your AI model's output format changes, you might need to adjust the parsing logic here.

4. Implement Email Labeling in Zoho Mail:

   • The "No Operation, do nothing" node (ID 26) is a placeholder. To fully automate labeling in Zoho Mail, you would replace this node with a "Zoho Mail" node (or a generic HTTP Request node if Zoho Mail has an API for labeling) configured to apply the category and labels derived from the AI.
   • You would typically use expressions to pass the category and labels data from the previous nodes to the Zoho Mail action.

5. Activate the Workflow:

   • Once all credentials and configurations are set, click the "Activate" toggle in the top right corner of the n8n editor to start the workflow.

This workflow provides a robust foundation for intelligent email management. By integrating with Zoho Mail's labeling features, you can significantly reduce manual effort and improve email organization.