IMAP to Notion Helpdesk Tickets: n8n Workflow Automation

Turn IMAP support emails into Notion helpdesk tickets—automatically

This n8n workflow monitors a shared support inbox via IMAP and converts new emails into structured helpdesk tickets in Notion. It deduplicates by Message-ID, recognizes replies by thread headers, uploads attachments to Notion, and posts follow-ups as comments on the correct ticket.

What this workflow does

• Watches an IMAP inbox for new incoming emails in your configured shared support mailbox.
• Cleans and normalizes email content (subject, body, sender details) and extracts thread headers to support deduplication and follow-up detection.
• Prevents duplicate tickets by querying the Notion Tickets database and skipping emails whose Message-ID already exists on an existing ticket.
• Handles replies and follow-ups by searching Notion for a ticket matching the email’s In-Reply-To/References, then adds the message as a comment on the original ticket.
• Uploads attachments to Notion using the File Upload API, tracking successful uploads and recording failures.
• Creates new tickets for new requests by finding or creating the requester in the Notion Contacts database, creating a ticket (using the database default template when available), inserting the cleaned email content at the top, and storing the email’s Message-ID on the ticket.

Use cases

• SaaS support teams who want a lightweight helpdesk in Notion without manual ticket entry.
• Consolidating multiple inbox threads into a single Notion ticket with proper comment history.
• Keeping all request context (message content, thread updates, attachments) inside Notion for easy review.

Technical details

• IMAP trigger for new email detection.
• Notion API access to Tickets and Contacts databases, page creation, and comment insertion.
• File Upload API to upload email attachments into Notion.
• n8n nodes referenced in the workflow: if, set, code, sticky note, http request, stop and error.

Setup requirements

Create a Notion integration, share your Tickets and Contacts databases, and grant permissions to create pages, upload files, and insert comments. Then configure the workflow’s Notion API credentials.