WhatsApp Support Bot in n8n: OpenRouter + Pinecone + Gmail

Instant WhatsApp customer support—powered by OpenRouter, Pinecone, and Gmail escalation in n8n

This n8n workflow automatically answers incoming WhatsApp Business messages using an OpenRouter chat model with Pinecone-powered knowledge retrieval. When a request can’t be handled by your support knowledge base (or needs a human), it escalates to your team via Gmail and then sends the appropriate reply back on WhatsApp.

What this workflow does

• Triggers on new WhatsApp messages sent to your WhatsApp Business number (Cloud credentials required for both receiving and sending).
• Loads workflow settings such as business name, OpenRouter model selection, support email, language, and a per-customer memory window.
• Filters incoming events to ignore anything that isn’t an incoming text message.
• Answers using OpenRouter + Pinecone retrieval: the workflow queries a Pinecone knowledge base using Google Gemini embeddings to generate responses grounded only in retrieved support content.
• Escalates when needed: if the question can’t be answered from the knowledge base or requires human help (e.g., refund/complaint/cancellation or the customer asks for a person), the workflow emails the support team via Gmail.
• Replies back on WhatsApp with either the knowledge-based answer or a predefined escalation notice.

Use cases

• A customer asks about pricing, plans, or onboarding—receives an instant, knowledge-base-based WhatsApp reply.
• A request for cancellation or a complaint—triggers a Gmail escalation to your support team.
• Frequent FAQs—reduces ticket volume while maintaining consistent answers sourced from your Pinecone index.

Technical details

• Nodes/Tools: set, filter, WhatsApp, Gmail tool, sticky note, and n8n-nodes-langchainagent.
• LLM: OpenRouter chat model (configurable model ID).
• Knowledge retrieval: Pinecone index populated with support content (using Gemini embeddings).
• Conversation handling: per-customer conversation memory within the configured memory window.