1
Define inbox scope and autonomous-action limits
60-90 min
60-90 min
Define the sending inboxes, event campaigns, date range, recipient classes, regions, and message types the agent may process. List allowed actions: classify, label, draft, suppress, create a reviewed calendar hold, or escalate. Prohibit autonomous replies for pricing, legal, sponsorship, complaints, sensitive data, VIPs, ambiguous intent, or any message outside the event scope. Name the event owner, inbox owner, calendar owner, and escalation backup. Record the operation against stable identifiers such as campaign_id, contact_id, gmail_message_id, thread_id, reply_class, preserve the raw source reference and capture time, and write any transformation or decision into the system’s change history rather than replacing the prior value. Before the step is marked complete, deterministic suppression and ownership rules execute before any draft or calendar write, with humans approving ambiguous or sensitive cases; if that check fails, escalate complaints, legal requests, unclear intent, scheduling conflicts, stale eligibility, repeated failures, and any action outside the approved autonomous class; before completion, the accountable operator must perform and record a QA review against the approved field rules and evidence, and any failed check must be held as an assigned exception.
Output
An approved scope and least-authority action policy for the event agent.
GmailGoogle Calendarn8n
Pro tip
Begin in draft-only mode. Classification accuracy does not automatically justify permission to send or alter calendars.
2
Create the contact, message, and meeting state model
2-3 hours
2-3 hours
Build n8n Data Tables tables for Campaigns, Contacts, Outreach Messages, Replies, Classifications, Suppressions, Meeting Requests, Calendar Events, Executions, and Exceptions. Store Gmail message and thread IDs, recipient, campaign ID, send date, reply date, classification, confidence, extracted dates, time zone, owner, suppression reason, calendar event ID, and current state. Use immutable source IDs and preserve every state transition. Restrict access to message content and personal data. Record the operation against stable identifiers such as contact_id, gmail_message_id, thread_id, reply_class, suppression_state, preserve the raw source reference and capture time, and write any transformation or decision into the system’s change history rather than replacing the prior value. Before the step is marked complete, deterministic suppression and ownership rules execute before any draft or calendar write, with humans approving ambiguous or sensitive cases; if that check fails, escalate complaints, legal requests, unclear intent, scheduling conflicts, stale eligibility, repeated failures, and any action outside the approved autonomous class; before completion, the accountable operator must perform and record a QA review against the approved field rules and evidence, and any failed check must be held as an assigned exception.
Output
A stateful event-outreach ledger linked to Gmail and Calendar identifiers.
n8n
Pro tip
Thread ID and message ID serve different purposes. Keep both so replies, retries, and forwarded messages do not create duplicate state.