n8n Workflow: Sync HubSpot Contacts from Gmail Auto-Replies

Automatically detect when leads leave or go out of office—and route HubSpot updates for approval

This n8n workflow scans Gmail hourly for auto-replies and permanent bounces, uses Anthropic Claude to detect whether a contact has left the company or is out of office, and then posts Slack approvals before updating your HubSpot contacts with accurate lead status changes, CRM notes, replacement contacts, and follow-up tasks.

What this workflow does

• Runs every hour and loads settings such as lookback window, approval timeout, and the target Slack channel.
• Validates the HubSpot app token and required scopes before accessing any email data.
• Searches Gmail for recent auto-replies and bounce messages, deduplicates results across runs, and selects the most relevant reply per contact.
• Checks HubSpot for a matching contact (by sender or bounced address). It skips emails that aren’t tied to an existing contact or contacts already marked with your configured left lead status.
• Uses Anthropic Claude to classify the message as left_company, out_of_office, or other, extracting supporting quotes and replacement details when present.
• Builds a safe update plan and routes outcomes:
  • Posts “left company” cases and permanent bounces to Slack for approval.
  • Creates HubSpot follow-up tasks for validated out-of-office return dates.
  • Posts informational Slack alerts when HubSpot lookup errors occur.
• After Slack approval (within the configured window), writes the planned updates to HubSpot (lead status change + CRM note, and optional replacement contact) and posts a summary of what succeeded.

Use cases

• Keep HubSpot lead statuses accurate when Gmail auto-replies indicate a contact left the company.
• Handle permanent bounces by routing “lost” contacts to Slack for confirmation before updating CRM.
• Automatically create follow-up tasks when a contact returns from out-of-office.

Technical details

• n8n nodes/logic: if, set, code, gmail, slack, switch
• Integrations: Gmail (auto-replies + permanent bounces), HubSpot (contact lookup + lead status updates, CRM notes, tasks), Slack (approval workflow + alerts), Anthropic Claude (classification and quote extraction)