📊 Automated UPSC current affairs digest from The Hindu to Google Sheets with Gemini AI

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Description

This template sets up a scheduled automation that scrapes the latest news from The Hindu website, uses a Google Gemini AI Agent to filter and analyze the content for relevance to the Competitive Exams like UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) syllabus, and compiles a structured daily digest directly into a Google Sheet. It saves hours of manual reading and note-taking by providing concise summaries, subject categorization, and explicit UPSC importance notes.

Who’s it for

This workflow is essential for:

1. UPSC/CSE Aspirants who require a curated, focused, and systematic daily current affairs digest.
2. Coaching Institutes aiming to instantly generate structured, high-quality study material for their students.
3. Educators and Content Creators focused on Governance, Economy, International Relations, and Science & Technology.

How it works / What it does

This workflow runs automatically every morning (scheduled for 7 AM by default) to generate a ready-to-study current affairs document.

1. Scraping: The Schedule Trigger fires an HTTP Request to fetch the latest news links from The Hindu’s front page.
2. Data Curation: The HTML and Code in JavaScript nodes work together to extract and pair every article URL with its title.
3. Content Retrieval: For each identified link, a second HTTP Request node fetches the entire article body.
4. AI Analysis and Filtering: The AI Agent uses a detailed prompt and the Google Gemini Chat Model to perform two critical tasks:
   1. Filter: It filters out all irrelevant articles (e.g., sports results, local crime) to keep only the 5-6 most important UPSC-relevant pieces (Polity, Economy, IR, etc.).
   2. Analyze: For the selected articles, it generates a Brief Summary, identifies the Main Subject, and clearly articulates Why it is Important for the UPSC Exam.
5. Storage: The AI Agent calls the integrated Google Sheets Tool to automatically append the structured, analyzed data into your designated Google Sheet, creating your daily ready-made notes.

Requirements

To deploy this workflow, you need:

1. n8n Account: (Cloud or self-hosted).
2. Google Gemini API Key: For connecting the Google Gemini Chat Model and powering the AI Agent.
3. Google Sheets Credentials: For reading/writing the final compiled digest.
4. Target Google Sheet: A spreadsheet with the following columns: Date, URL, Subject, Brief Summary, and What is Important.

How to set up

• Credentials Setup: Connect your Google Gemini and Google Sheets accounts via the n8n Credentials Manager.
• Google Sheet Linking: In the Append row in sheet and Append row in sheet in Google Sheets1 nodes, replace the placeholder IDs and GIDs with the actual ID and sheet name of your dedicated UPSC notes spreadsheet.
• Scheduling: Adjust the time in the Schedule Trigger: Daily at 7 AM node if you want the daily analysis to run at a different hour.
• AI Customization (Optional): You can refine the System Message in the AI Agent: Filter & Analyze UPSC News node to focus the analysis on specific exam phases (e.g., Prelims only) or adjust the priority of subjects.

🔗 Nodes Used

Google Sheets, HTTP Request, Schedule Trigger, AI Agent, Google Gemini Chat Model

📥 Import

Download workflow.json and import into n8n: Workflow menu → Import from File

📖 Importing guide · 🔑 Credential setup