Community Topic Keyword Tracker to Google Sheets - n8n Workflow

Community Managers: Individuals needing to monitor specific topics or trends within the n8n community forum.
Support Teams: Users who want to track new questions related to their features or projects.
n8n Automation Experts: Developers looking for practical n8n templates showcasing HTTP requests, data splitting, and Google Sheets operations.
Data Analysts: Professionals requiring structured data feeds from online forums for analysis.

Keeping track of specific discussions across a large forum like the n8n Community can be time-consuming. This powerful n8n workflow solves this by creating a scheduled, automated system that acts as a dedicated topic monitor. By leveraging the search API of the n8n Community, this n8n automation extracts all the latest relevant threads matching your custom keywords. The data—including topic ID, URL, creation date, and title—is then immediately saved or updated in a structured Google Sheet. This reliable n8n template ensures that you never miss a critical discussion or support request, providing a centralized, real-time data source for better community engagement and faster response times. The architecture includes a secondary flow utilizing the Google Sheets n8n trigger for optional instant notifications (via Slack or Email) whenever a new topic is added to your sheet.

This n8n workflow operates in two distinct flows.

Main Data Acquisition Flow

1. Scheduled Execution: The automation starts with the 'Schedule Trigger' n8n trigger, configured to run hourly, ensuring timely data retrieval.


2. Fetching Latest Topics: The 'Get latest topics' n8n node (an HTTP Request) queries the n8n Community search API. It uses a custom query parameter (q) to filter topics based on your specified keyword, prioritizing the 'latest' results.


3. Data Preparation: The 'Get topics' n8n node, a Split Out utility, processes the JSON response from the API, splitting the array of topics into individual items. This prepares the data for row-by-row insertion.


4. Google Sheets Logging: The final 'Google Sheets' n8n node performs an 'Append or Update' operation. It uses the topic ID as the matching column to prevent duplicates, ensuring that only new or updated topics are logged, providing a clean and efficient data repository.

Optional Alert Flow

1. Sheet Monitoring: The 'Google Sheets Trigger' n8n trigger monitors the specified Google Sheet document every minute for any changes or new rows (i.e., new topics added by the main n8n workflow).


2. Notification: Upon detecting an update, the flow branches out, sending a notification message to the 'Slack' n8n node and the 'Send Email' n8n node, alerting users instantly that new topics matching the keyword have been logged.

To deploy and customize this essential n8n template, follow these steps:

1. Import the n8n Workflow: Copy the provided JSON and import it directly into your n8n instance.


2. Configure Credentials: Establish connections for the following services:

1. Customize the Keyword: Double-click the 'Get latest topics' n8n node. Under 'Query Parameters', locate the q parameter and replace 'ADD-YOUR-KEYWORD-HERE' with the specific search term you wish to monitor (e.g., 'docker', 'custom n8n node', or 'supabase').


2. Set up Google Sheet: Ensure the target Google Sheet document exists and contains the required header columns: id, date, title, url, and has_solution.


3. Activate: Save the n8n workflow and set the main 'Schedule Trigger' to active. The n8n automation will begin running hourly.

Schedule Trigger (n8n trigger): Initiates the primary data flow. Key Configuration: Set to execute the n8n workflow every hour.
Get latest topics (HTTP Request n8n node): Performs the data extraction. Key Configuration: Targets https://community.n8n.io/search. Uses query parameters q (for keyword filtering) and order: latest to retrieve the newest relevant content.
Get topics (Split Out n8n node): Essential core logic n8n node that separates the list of topics found in the response JSON so that each topic can be processed and logged individually.
Google Sheets (n8n node): The final action node for logging. Key Configuration: Operation set to 'Append or Update'. It maps specific JSON fields (id, created_at, title, slug) to the respective columns in the spreadsheet, using the topic ID for matching.
Google Sheets Trigger (n8n trigger): Initiates the optional notification flow. Key Configuration: Polls the specified sheet every minute for new data.
Slack / Send Email (n8n node): Executes the notifications when a new row is detected, providing real-time alerts about the tracked n8n community topics.