Just completed my first automation workflow and feeling amazing about it

Other Questions workflow
1

This might sound dumb but I’m really excited right now. I have zero coding background and have been struggling for weeks trying to build something that actually works.

Today I finally got this automation running:

My wife always sends me texts about her appointments like “Dentist Monday 2:00 PM” because I’m basically her personal reminder system. The problem is she forgets she even sent these messages to me.

Now I built a workflow that handles this automatically. When she texts me, an SMS forwarding app triggers a webhook that:

  • validates the message came from her phone number
  • uses Gemini AI to detect if it’s appointment related
  • converts the text into structured JSON format if it matches
  • emails me the parsed details like time, date and location
  • runs a Google Apps Script that creates a calendar event
  • syncs to her phone so she gets reminders before each appointment

I know you experts probably see tons of advanced workflows here and mine definitely has beginner mistakes. But wow, the feeling when everything finally clicks into place and works perfectly is incredible.

Just wanted to share this small victory with everyone here!

2

Congrats on getting it working! That feeling when everything finally clicks is what keeps us hooked on automation. Your AI parsing approach is really smart - I’ve seen tons of workflows that just dump raw text into calendars with zero intelligence. Good call on the validation step too since webhooks can get messy without proper security. My first automation took me a month of trial and error, so don’t sweat the beginner mistakes. We all start somewhere, and you’re solving a real problem with solid tech.

3

not dum at all! automation’s super addictive once u get that first win. ur workflow’s way more sophisticated than my first attempt - i just forwarded emails lol. the ai parsing part’s pretty clever.