Connecting APIs: Automating with Notion, Airtable, and Slack

🚀 Automate the Tools You Already Use

Once you've mastered capturing inputs with webhooks and sending emails, the next step is connecting your core tools — like Notion, Airtable, and Slack — to automatically route and store data.

This chapter will teach you how to use API integrations in n8n to pass data across your stack — all without writing custom backend scripts.

🔧 What You'll Build

We'll extend the lead capture workflow from Chapter 2 and integrate:

• Notion — to log leads in a structured database
• Airtable — to create a spreadsheet-like CRM
• Slack — to ping your team the moment a lead arrives

You can mix and match any combination depending on your workflow — n8n makes it modular.

🛠️ Prerequisites

Before you begin:

• You should have a working webhook workflow (from Chapter 2)
• Accounts on Notion, Airtable, and Slack
• Basic data structure created in each tool:
  • Notion database with fields like Name, Email, Message
  • Airtable base with similar columns
  • Slack channel ready to receive messages

🔗 Step 1: Connect to Notion

Add a Notion node to your workflow. If it's your first time:

• Create a new Notion integration from Notion's API dashboard
• Share access with the database you'll write to
• Paste the integration token into n8n's credentials

Once authenticated:

• Select your Notion database
• Map fields from your webhook data to the Notion columns
• Example: {{$json["email"]}} → "Email" column

Test the node and confirm a new entry appears in Notion.

🔗 Step 2: Update Airtable with Lead Data

Add an Airtable node. To connect:

• Generate a personal access token
• In n8n, create Airtable credentials using this token
• Choose your base and table

In the node settings:

• Choose "Create" as the operation
• Map fields as needed (name, email, source, timestamp)
• Use expressions like {{$json["name"]}} to pull in data

Run the node and check your Airtable base — you should see the row appear instantly.

🔗 Step 3: Send a Slack Notification

Now, let's alert your team when a new lead lands.

Add a Slack node:

• Set up OAuth credentials (or paste in a legacy bot token if your workspace allows it)
• Choose the Send Message operation
• Pick your channel (e.g., #sales-leads)

🧠 Tips for Cleaner Workflows

• Use the "Set" node to rename or reshape incoming data before passing to tools
• Add conditional logic if you want to filter who gets added where (e.g., only @gmail.com go to Airtable)
• Add a delay or rate limit node if your tools have API quotas
• For security, don't hardcode secrets — use n8n's credential manager

📦 Extending the Workflow

From here, you can take things further:

• Add a GPT-based summarizer before storing data
• Push leads into your CRM via webhook or API
• Auto-assign tasks in ClickUp or Linear for follow-up
• Send calendar invites or follow-up emails as part of the flow

You now have the ability to fully automate your intake pipeline, turning manual tracking into a system.

🔜 Next Chapter

Now that you're comfortable with API-based automation, it's time to level up your reliability.

In Chapter 4, you'll learn how to handle errors, timeouts, triggers, and build scalable, production-grade workflows.

👉 Continue to Chapter 4: Error Handling, Triggers, and Scaling Your n8n Flows