Unanswered mail makes it hungry. One click and an n8n workflow reads an inbox from Nextcloud, sorts every mail into do, delegate or ignore, computes the beast's hunger (five stages, from egg to kraken) and really creates cards in Deck, a message in Talk and a report in Files.
Colour
🔒 It only reads one dedicated demo mailbox in the Nextcloud Mail app, with invented mails of the fictional Brightside Studio. A guard checks account and address, so nobody sees real mailboxes here. For your own inbox, enter your account and mailbox ids in the first Code node.
WebhookYour click starts the workflow
Nextcloud MailRead the inbox
Deck APIRead the board
AISort the mails
CodeCompute hunger
Deck · Talk · Filesn8n writes
CleanupNothing piles up
Hunger
Reply time (target 48 h)
unansweredfor youdeadlines missed
Do 0
Delegate 0
Ignore 0
Template: the AI was busy, so n8n sorted with fixed rules.
The file only contains placeholders (address, user, credentials). You cannot import it as it is: enter your own credentials and IDs first.
How it works
WebhookYour click starts an n8n workflow on my server. The page only sends a colour and two numbers for the simulation.
Fix the demo spaceA Code node defines where the workflow may read and write: one mail account, one Deck board, one Talk room, one folder. Every URL is checked against it.
Three requests at onceThe Mail API fetches the messages of the demo mailbox, the Deck API the board, a PROPFIND lists the Outbox folder.
Rules firstA Code node sorts every mail into do, delegate or ignore with fixed rules and gives it a priority. It works without AI.
AI assistantA language model hosted at IONOS in Germany corrects the sorting and writes the report, the quote and the tip. Every answer is validated: invalid categories or invented people are dropped.
Hunger and stageFrom the unanswered mails and their age a Code node computes hunger (0 to 100%) and the stage from egg to kraken. The dials simulate what happens when you reply or do nothing.
WriteDeck API: up to five cards. WebDAV PUT: a report as Markdown. Talk API: one message. Before that, the workflow deletes its own earlier cards and the oldest reports.
IngestThe result, with the real status codes of the writes, lands on the server as JSON. This page builds the beast from it.
Privacy: nothing of yours is sent to Nextcloud, the workflow only works with the fictional demo data. The result is stored (with no link to you) so the share link works, plus, for the limits, a salted hash of your IP address for at most one hour. More in the privacy policy
To keep Nextcloud relaxed: 20 seconds between two runs, three per hour and visitor, 100 per day.
An n8n workflow that reads a demo inbox from Nextcloud and sorts every mail into do, delegate or ignore. From the unanswered mails it computes a hunger value, and that becomes a beast in five stages, from egg to kraken.
Does it read real mail?
No. The workflow only reads a sealed-off demo mailbox in Nextcloud Mail with invented mails of the fictional Brightside Studio (guard on account and address). For your own inbox you swap the read node for IMAP or Gmail.
What does the workflow write into Nextcloud?
Up to five cards on the demo Deck board, one message in the demo Talk room and a report file in the Outbox folder. It deletes earlier cards and the oldest reports itself so nothing piles up.