Build your first scenario

Latenode is a workflow automation platform. Automations in Latenode are called scenarios. A scenario is built from nodes (steps) connected by routes (connections).

In this quickstart, you’ll build a simple scenario:

• A Gmail trigger detects a new unread email
• An AI action generates a reply

Prerequisites

• A Latenode account
• Access to a Gmail inbox (for the example trigger)

Step 1 — Add a trigger node

The trigger node starts the scenario. A scenario can be triggered by:

• An event in an external application (e.g., a message in Telegram or a new email in Gmail).
• Clicking Run once.
• Sending an HTTP request.

Select a trigger node

To select the appropriate trigger node:

1. On the scenario page, click any Add Node button.

2. In the Choose Application window, go to the Triggers tab, search for, and select the desired node. For example, select the New Email trigger from the Gmail group.

Authorize the app (if needed)

When you open a node for the first time, you’ll either see configuration fields or a Create Authorization button. If you see Create Authorization, this node requires authorization to work (most app nodes do).

To authorize (using New Email as an example):

1. Click the Create Authorization button.

2. Click New Authorization.

3. In the Choose Service window, select the required application. For the New Email node, this is the Gmail application.

4. Confirm Latenode access in the authorization dialogs.

5. Verify in the New Email node that:

• The Connection field shows the connection.
• The node configuration fields are available.

Configure the trigger node

Almost every added node needs to be configured by filling in the required and optional fields.

For the New Email node, for example, you can fill in the Labels field. If you set the Labels field to UNREAD, the node will trigger the scenario when there is a new unread message.

Test the trigger node

To test the node:

1. Save the node settings.

2. Save the scenario.

3. Right-click the trigger node and select Run Node Once.

4. Send an email to the account used for authorization.

5. Wait for the node to execute and check for a success message.

Step 2 — Add an action node

After the trigger node executes, the action node runs next. Action nodes perform work based on the trigger output.

For example: When a new unread message arrives in Gmail, a response should be generated for that email.

In this case, the action is generating a response based on the email text. You can do this with an AI node.

Add an action node (and create a route)

To select the appropriate action node:

1. Click the right connection point of the trigger node to create a route.

2. In the Choose Application window on the Actions tab, search for and select the desired node. For generating a response, choose the AI Anthropic Claude 3 node from the AI ChatGPT Alternatives group.

Configure the action node

Unlike the New Email node, the AI Anthropic Claude 3 node does not require authorization and can be configured immediately. To configure this node:

1. Right-click the added AI Anthropic Claude 3 node.

2. Fill in the required fields:

• Model: Choose an AI model, such as Sonnet.
• User Prompt: Enter a prompt, for example: "Generate a reply to the email text: X."

3. Define the value of X, i.e., the email text to which you are responding. The email text is provided by the New Email trigger node as output data during execution.

Since the email text can vary, you need to input the parameter from the previous node rather than the actual text. To do this:

• Click the User Prompt field in the AI Anthropic Claude 3 node.
• In the Data tab, select the decodedContent parameter from the New Email node.
• Save the node settings.

Test the action node

To test how the added node performs the action:

1. Right-click the trigger node and select Run Node Once.

2. Review the execution results, including the generated text.

Step 3 — Run and deploy your scenario

Save your scenario. To test it, click Run once. After this, when the trigger event occurs, Latenode will execute the nodes in order, and you can review results in the node details and in Execution History.

When everything looks good, click Deploy to activate the scenario. It will then run automatically when a new unread email appears in the inbox.