AI Agents

You’re in the middle of something and a task pops into your head. You don’t want to open a dedicated app, create an account, or navigate a dashboard; you just want to type it somewhere and know it won’t slip through the cracks. This workflow gives you exactly that: send Remind 14:30 Call the client to your Telegram bot, and it handles everything else. At exactly 14:30, your phone buzzes with the reminder.

In this guide, you’ll build a two-workflow n8n automation that uses Telegram as the input interface and Google Sheets as the brain. No coding, no monthly subscription, no app install. Just a bot that listens, stores, and delivers.

Prefer to skip the setup? Grab the ready-made template → and be up and running in under 10 minutes.

What You’ll Build

1. You send a message to your Telegram bot: Remind 14:30 Call the client
2. The bot validates the format, saves the reminder to a Google Sheet, and sends you a confirmation instantly.
3. Every minute, a background workflow checks the sheet for due reminders.
4. At exactly 14:30, your Telegram receives: 🔔 REMINDER: Task: Call the client
5. The reminder is automatically marked as Done so it never fires twice.

How It Works: The Big Picture

The system is built from two separate n8n workflows that share a Google Sheet as their bridge. Workflow 1 handles input; Workflow 2 handles delivery.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  WORKFLOW 1 - Reminder Creator                                   │
│                                                                  │
│  [Telegram Trigger] -> [Parse Command] -> [Route / Switch]       │
│                                               │           │      │
│                                        (valid)│     (error│      │
│                                               ↓           ↓      │
│                                      [Save to Sheet]  [Send      │
│                                               │        Info/Err] │
│                                               ↓                  │
│                                      [Send Confirmation]         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

                    ↕  Shared Google Sheet ("Rappels" tab)

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  WORKFLOW 2 - Checker (runs every 1 minute)                      │
│                                                                  │
│  [Schedule Trigger] -> [Read Sheet] -> [Filter by Time]          │
│                                               │                  │
│                                        (match)↓                  │
│                                      [Send Telegram Alert]       │
│                                               │                  │
│                                               ↓                  │
│                                      [Mark Row as Done]          │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

What You’ll Need

• A free n8n account (cloud or self-hosted)
• A Telegram bot token; create one for free via @BotFather in 2 minutes
• A Google account with access to Google Sheets
• A Google Cloud Service Account for authentication (we’ll walk through it)

Estimated build time: 30-45 minutes from scratch, or under 10 minutes with the ready-made template.

Part 1: The Reminder Creator Workflow

This workflow lives at the input end of the system. It listens for Telegram messages, validates the format, stores valid reminders, and immediately confirms receipt.

1 Telegram Trigger

What it does: Listens continuously for any new message sent to your Telegram bot and fires the workflow the moment one arrives.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Telegram Trigger node to a new workflow.
2. Set Updates to Watch to message.
3. Connect your Telegram bot credentials (the API token from BotFather).
4. Click Test node, then send any message to your bot and you’ll see the raw data appear.

The raw data that flows out of this node looks like this:

{
  "message": {
    "message_id": 42,
    "chat": {
      "id": 123456789
    },
    "text": "Remind 14:30 Call the client"
  }
}

2 Parse Command (Code Node)

What it does: Reads the message text, checks whether it starts with Remind, and extracts the time and task, or returns a clear error if the format is wrong.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Code node after the Telegram Trigger.
2. Set the language to JavaScript.
3. Paste in the parsing logic (included in the template).

The code checks for the Remind prefix (case-insensitive), then extracts two pieces of information using a regular expression: the time in HH:MM format and everything after it as the task description. It returns one of three output types:

For a valid input like Remind 14:30 Call the client, the output looks like this:

{
  "type": "remind",
  "tache": "Call the client",
  "date_heure": "2026-03-14 14:30",
  "raw_time": "14:30"
}

For an invalid input like Remind callmom, it returns:

{
  "type": "error",
  "message": "❌ Incorrect format\n\nExpected: Remind HH:MM Task\nExample: Remind 14:30 Call the client"
}

3 Route (Switch Node)

What it does: Acts as a traffic controller. Valid reminders go down one path; errors and help messages go down another.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Switch node after Parse Command.
2. Create two output routes:
   • Route “reminder”: condition {{ $json.type }} equals remind
   • Route “info”: condition {{ $json.type }} does not equal remind

This node is the guardian of your data. Nothing reaches the Google Sheet unless the format is clean.

4 Save to Sheet (Google Sheets)

What it does: Appends a new row to the Rappels tab in your Google Sheet, recording the task, scheduled time, and an initial status of “pending”.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Google Sheets node on the “reminder” output of the Switch.
2. Set the operation to Append row.
3. Connect your Google Service Account credentials.
4. Select your spreadsheet and the Rappels sheet tab.
5. Map the columns as shown below.

5 Send Confirmation (Telegram)

What it does: Immediately sends a success message back to the user confirming that their reminder was saved.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Telegram node after Save to Sheet.
2. Set Chat ID to ={{ $('Telegram Trigger').item.json.message.chat.id }}; this dynamically targets the person who sent the original message.
3. Set the message text to something like:

✅ REMINDER SAVED
📝 Task: {{ $json.Tache }}
⏰ Time: {{ $json.Date_Heure }}
I'll remind you at the scheduled time! 🔔

There’s also a Send Info/Error node on the Switch’s second output. It simply sends back the message field from the Parse Command output, which is either a usage hint or a formatted error. No extra configuration needed beyond setting the chat ID the same way.

Part 2: The Checker Workflow

This second workflow runs silently in the background every minute, checking whether any saved reminder is due. When it finds one, it fires the notification and marks the row complete.

1 Schedule Trigger

What it does: Fires the workflow automatically every 60 seconds, regardless of user activity.

How to configure it:

1. Create a new workflow and add a Schedule Trigger node.
2. Set the interval to Every 1 minute.

2 Get Reminders (Google Sheets)

What it does: Reads all rows from the Rappels tab, every saved reminder whether pending or done.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Google Sheets node set to Read rows.
2. Connect to the same spreadsheet and Rappels tab.

n8n automatically splits the sheet rows into individual items; each reminder becomes a separate item flowing through the rest of the workflow.

3 Check Time (Filter Node)

What it does: Keeps only the rows where the scheduled time matches right now. Everything else is silently dropped.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Filter node.
2. Set the condition: {{ $json.Date_Heure }} contains ={{ $now.format('yyyy-MM-dd H:mm') }}

The contains operator (rather than strict equality) is intentional; it makes the time comparison more resilient to minor formatting differences between the stored string and the current timestamp.

4 Send Telegram Alert

What it does: Sends the reminder notification to your Telegram account.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Telegram node.
2. Set the Chat ID to your personal Telegram user ID (find it by messaging @userinfobot).
3. Set the message text:

🔔 REMINDER 🔔

Task: {{ $json.Tache }}
Scheduled for: {{ $json.Date_Heure }}

5 Update Status (Google Sheets)

What it does: Marks the reminder row as Done so it never fires again.

How to configure it:

1. Add a Google Sheets node set to Update row.
2. Match on row_number (n8n tracks this automatically when reading rows).
3. Set Statut = Done.

This is the closing loop that keeps the system clean. Without this step, the same reminder would fire every minute for the rest of the day.

The Data Structure

Your Google Sheet is the shared brain between both workflows. It has one tab named Rappels with exactly four columns:

Here’s what the lifecycle of a row looks like, from creation to completion:

Full System Flow

Here’s the entire journey, from the moment you type a message to the moment the reminder fires:

YOU ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
│
│  Send: "Remind 14:30 Call the client"
│
↓
[Telegram Trigger]
    │
    ↓
[Parse Command]  ──────────────────────────────────────────
    │                                                      │
    │ type: "remind"                          type: "error" or "chat"
    ↓                                                      │
[Route / Switch]                                           ↓
    │                                         [Send Info/Error -> YOU]
    ↓
[Save to Sheet] ──── Appends row to Google Sheets
    │                  Tache | Date_Heure       | Statut     | Type
    │                  ──────────────────────────────────────────────
    │                  Task  | 2026-03-14 14:30 | En attente | Reminder
    ↓
[Send Confirmation -> YOU]
    "✅ REMINDER SAVED - I'll remind you at 14:30!"

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  (every minute, Workflow 2 runs in the background)

[Schedule Trigger]
    │
    ↓
[Read All Rows from Google Sheets]
    │
    ↓
[Filter: Date_Heure = now?] ── (no match -> stop, wait 1 min)
    │ (match found)
    ↓
[Send Telegram Alert -> YOU]
    "🔔 REMINDER: Task: Call the client"
    │
    ↓
[Update Row: Statut = "Done"]  ──── Row never fires again

Testing Your Workflow

Before activating both workflows, run through this test sequence:

1. Activate Workflow 1 in n8n.
2. Open your Telegram bot and send: Remind 14:30 Test reminder
3. You should receive a confirmation message within 2-3 seconds.
4. Open your Google Sheet; a new row should appear with Statut = En attente.
5. Now create a reminder for 2 minutes from now: Remind HH:MM Watch for this
6. Activate Workflow 2.
7. Wait. The notification should arrive within 60 seconds of the scheduled time.
8. Check the sheet; the row’s Statut should now be Done.

If something doesn’t work, here are the most common culprits:

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s Next?

Once your reminder bot is up and running, here are some natural directions to take it:

• Multi-user support: store each sender’s chat.id in the sheet so the bot works for a whole team
• Recurring reminders: add a recurrence column and auto-reschedule rows after they fire
• List your reminders: add a List command that reads pending rows and sends them back to Telegram as a summary
• Calendar integration: connect Google Calendar to auto-create reminders from upcoming events without any manual input
• Priority levels: extend the command format to include urgency (Remind 14:30 urgent Call the client) and style the notification differently