FAQ Auto-Responder: draft replies from your own answers, waiting in the thread before you open it
An n8n workflow that matches every incoming support question against your FAQ knowledge sheet, has Claude compose a reply using only your approved answers (with a strict 'say so if you don't know' rule), and saves it as a Gmail draft in the thread — you review, tweak, send.
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Build the knowledge sheet
One tab, two columns:
question_pattern,approved_answer. Seed it from your sent folder's greatest hits — shipping times, refund policy, password resets, plan differences. Write answers exactly as you want them sent; Claude will adapt tone lightly but reuse your substance. - 2
Catch and clean incoming questions
A
Gmail Triggeron the support inbox, then the signature-strippingCodenode (same as the triage recipe — they chain beautifully). AGoogle Sheetsread loads the current FAQ into the flow. - 3
Compose with guardrails
The Claude call gets the customer email + full FAQ sheet: 'Reply using ONLY the approved answers. Match the customer's language. If no entry covers this, set confidence: low and write the holding reply instead. Output JSON {reply, confidence, matched_faq_row}.' The matched-row field doubles as an audit trail.
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Draft into the thread
A
Gmailnode creates a draft reply inside the original thread. Your new support routine: open thread, read the waiting draft, send or edit. A weekly branch counts drafts-sent-unedited — when a pattern hits 95%, you'll know it's a candidate for careful auto-send.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stop it from inventing answers?
Three guardrails, all in the workflow: Claude receives only your FAQ sheet as source material with the instruction 'answer exclusively from these entries'; it must output a confidence field, and low confidence produces a draft that says 'I'll check on this and get back to you' instead of a guess; and everything is a draft — nothing sends without a human. Hallucinated policy is the one unforgivable support failure, so the design assumes it will try and blocks it.
What goes in the FAQ knowledge sheet?
Two columns: question pattern, approved answer. Start by exporting your 20 most-sent replies (your sent folder knows them by heart). The magic compounds: every time you write a genuinely new answer, add a row, and the responder learns it. After a month the sheet is your support brain.
Why drafts instead of auto-send, honestly?
Because edge cases wear customer faces. 'Where's my order' is safe to automate — until it's from the customer whose order you already refunded once. The draft costs you one click when it's right and saves a fire when it's wrong. Teams that measure it still report 70–80% time savings at zero incident cost.