Let's Build Something Awesome: Integrating Gemini with n8n to Update Google Docs from a Chat

Why Bother with This Automation?

The Tools of the Trade

• An n8n account: This is the heart of our operation. n8n is a workflow automation tool that lets you connect different apps & services with a visual, no-code interface. If you don't have an account, you can sign up for a free one on their website. We'll be using their cloud version for this tutorial, as it simplifies some of the webhook setup.
• A Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account: This is where we'll get our Gemini API key. Gemini is part of the Google AI Platform, so you'll need a GCP account with billing enabled to access it. Don't worry, for light usage, the costs are minimal.
• A Google Doc: This is our final destination. Create a new, empty Google Doc where you want your chat summaries to appear.
• A chat interface: This is our starting point. For this tutorial, we'll use n8n's built-in Chat Trigger, which gives us a simple web-based chat interface. However, you could easily adapt this to work with other chat platforms like Telegram, Slack, or even a custom chatbot on your website.

Let's Get Building: The Step-by-Step Guide

Part 1: Setting Up the Chat Trigger

1. Create a new workflow in n8n: Log in to your n8n account & click the "Add workflow" button. You'll be greeted with a blank canvas.
2. Add the Chat Trigger node: Click the "+" button to add a new node & search for "Chat Trigger." Select it from the list. This node will act as our chat interface.
3. Configure the Chat Trigger: You don't need to do much here. The default settings are fine for our purposes. This node will automatically generate a webhook URL that we can use to access our chat.

Part 2: Configuring the Gemini Node

1. Add the Google Gemini node: Click the "+" button after your Chat Trigger node & search for "Google Gemini." You'll see a few options; select the "Google Gemini Chat Model" or a similar option.
2. Create new credentials: To use the Gemini API, you'll need to authenticate your n8n workflow with your Google Cloud account. Click on the "Credential" dropdown & select "Create New."
3. Get your API key from Google AI Studio: This is the trickiest part of the setup. You'll need to head over to the Google AI Studio.
   • If you haven't already, you'll need to create a new project in your Google Cloud Console.
   • Once you have a project, go to the "API keys" section in the Google AI Studio & generate a new API key.
   • Copy this API key.
4. Add your API key to n8n: Paste the API key into the credential creation screen in n8n. Give your credential a name (e.g., "My Gemini API Key") & save it.
5. Configure the Gemini node's input: Now, we need to tell the Gemini node what to do with the chat message. In the "Prompt" field of the Gemini node, you'll want to use an "expression" to get the text from our Chat Trigger. n8n makes this super easy. Click the "Add Expression" button (it looks like a little "f") & you'll see a visual way to select the data from the previous node. You'll want to find the
   1 text
   field from the Chat Trigger node's output. It will look something like this:
   1 {{$json["text"]}}
   .

Part 3: Setting Up the Google Docs Node

1. Add the Google Docs node: Click the "+" button after the Gemini node & search for "Google Docs." Add it to your workflow.
2. Create new credentials for Google Docs: Just like with Gemini, you'll need to authenticate with your Google account. Click the "Credential" dropdown, select "Create New," & follow the prompts to connect your Google account to n8n. This process uses OAuth2, which is a secure way to grant n8n access to your Google Docs.
3. Configure the Google Docs node: Now, we need to tell the node what to do.
   • Operation: Select "Append" or "Insert Text." "Append" will add the text to the end of the document.
   • Document ID: You need to provide the ID of the Google Doc you want to update. You can find this in the URL of your Google Doc. It's the long string of letters & numbers between
     1 /d/
     &
     1 /edit
     .
   • Text: This is where we'll put the output from our Gemini node. Again, use an expression to get the
     1 text
     from the Gemini node's output. It will look something like this:
     1 {{$node["Google Gemini"].json["text"]}}
     .

Part 4: Connecting Everything & Testing

1. Connect the nodes: Drag the output of the Chat Trigger node to the input of the Gemini node. Then, drag the output of the Gemini node to the input of the Google Docs node. You should have a nice, linear workflow.
2. Activate your workflow: In the top right corner of the n8n interface, toggle the "Active" switch to on. This makes your workflow live & ready to receive chat messages.
3. Test it out! Open the webhook URL from your Chat Trigger node in a new tab. Type a message into the chat & hit enter. Then, go check your Google Doc. You should see the message, processed by Gemini, appear in your document!

Taking It a Step Further

• Add more context to Gemini: You could use a "Memory" node in n8n to give Gemini a history of the conversation, allowing for more coherent summaries.
• Improve the formatting in Google Docs: The basic "Append Text" action in the Google Docs node can be a bit limiting. For more control over formatting (like adding headings, bold text, or lists), you can use the "HTTP Request" node to interact with the Google Docs API directly. This is a more advanced technique, but it gives you a ton of flexibility.
• Integrate with a different chat platform: As I mentioned earlier, you could easily swap out the Chat Trigger for a Telegram, Slack, or WhatsApp trigger to use this automation with your favorite messaging app.
• Deploy a professional chatbot: If you're using this for a business, you might want a more polished chat interface. This is where a tool like Arsturn comes in. You could build a no-code AI chatbot with Arsturn, trained on your business data, to handle the initial customer interaction. Then, you could use a webhook from Arsturn to trigger your n8n workflow & log the conversation in your Google Doc. This combination of a user-friendly frontend (Arsturn) & a powerful backend automation engine (n8n) is a recipe for success. Arsturn helps businesses build meaningful connections with their audience through these personalized chatbots, which can be a game-changer for lead generation & customer engagement.

A Few Final Thoughts