Automated inbox organization for Outlook using GPT-4.1 agent
# Auto-Categorize Outlook Emails with AI in n8n
## **How It Works**
1. **Trigger:** The workflow starts with the **Microsoft Outlook Trigger** node, polling your inbox every minute for new emails.
2. **Extract & Clean Email Content:** The email’s key fields (from, subject, isRead, body) are extracted. The body is converted from HTML to Markdown, then sanitized to plain text for reliable AI processing.
**Node Setup Details:**
- **Microsoft Outlook Trigger**
- **Resource:** Message
- **Operation:** Trigger on new email
- **Fields to Output:** from, subject, isRead(optional), body
- **Folders to Include:** (Set to your Inbox or specific folder IDs)
- **Markdown Node**
- **Input:** `{{$json["body"]["content"]}}` (HTML email body)
- **Output Key:** `Email Body Markdown`
- **Purpose:** Converts HTML to Markdown for easier downstream processing.
- **Sanitize Node (Code Node)**
- **Input:** `Email Body Markdown` from previous node
- **Purpose:** Cleans up Markdown, strips images, links, HTML tags, table formatting, and truncates to 4000 characters.
- **Sample JS Code:**
```javascript
// Get the markdown content from the previous node
const markdownContent = $input.item.json["Email Body Markdown"];
3. **Setup AI tools**
- Move message and Get Folders Outlook tools are required, get contacts is optional.
- Set each field in the tools to "defined automatically by the model" and describe each field so the model understands how to use it.
- OpenRouter or other LLM models tool: You can use any client for this, but make sure to use a model that does well with tool calls (Claude, GPT-4.1, Gemini 2.5 Pro, etc.).
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## **Best Practices & Notes**
- **AI Prompt Engineering:** The AI is instructed to be conservative—never move emails from real people or saved contacts, and always explain its reasoning if it doesn’t move a message.
- This automation only works for **NEW** incoming messages.
- **Inbox Zero:** This system is designed to help you achieve and maintain Inbox Zero by keeping only actionable items in your main inbox.
- **Customization:** You can adjust the folder logic, add more categories, or tweak the AI prompt for your specific needs.
- **Privacy:** All processing happens within your n8n instance; no email data is stored outside your environment except for the AI call (which only receives sanitized, minimal content).
