Compare agentic invoice routing with n8n
Felix rebuilt an invoice-classification workflow with an n8n AI Agent to test whether agentic routing improved the task.
dev.to
Original prompt
Shared by the source author. See source notes for context.
You are a document classification agent. You will receive a Google Drive file ID and document name.
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Sourced account- Source author
- Felix
- Original account
- Read the source ↗
- Published
- Source link checked
- Reported result
- Felix reports that agentic routing worked, but retained deterministic routing because of varying decisions, debugging difficulty and added tool failures.
- Human involvement
- Felix reviewed behavior and retained the deterministic version.
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How the agent did it
- Give the agent a file identifier.
- Choose a folder tool or Slack alert.
- Compare failures with deterministic routing.
Felix rebuilt an invoice-classification workflow with an n8n AI Agent to test whether agentic routing improved the task. The earlier version classified uploaded PDF and image invoices, moved each file to the appropriate Google Drive folder and flagged uncertain documents in Slack.
The new version used Gemini and seven tools: six folder-move actions and one Slack alert. The agent received a file identifier, decided which category applied and called the corresponding tool. Felix says it worked, but he chose to retain the deterministic version for this process.
His reasons are concrete. The agent could route the same invoice differently across runs, made incorrect decisions harder to explain and added tool loops, missing parameters, schema mismatches and binary-transfer problems. He also rejected treating the agent's own confidence score as equivalent to a clean extraction failure signal. Both workflows were linked for comparison. The account records a completed agent experiment with an unfavorable deployment choice, showing where added reasoning created extra maintenance without a reported gain in capability.
Prompt
Original prompt
Source: dev.to · Felix
Frequently asked questions
What model powered the agent?
Gemini powered the n8n Agent node.
Which tools could it choose?
Six folder moves and one Slack alert.
Why did Felix retain deterministic routing?
The agent could route the same invoice differently, obscured debugging and introduced tool loops, schema mismatches and binary-transfer problems without adding capability.
More details
About this account
The agent selected and called routing tools.
Firsthand account opened and read; outcomes attributed to the author. Prompt is a verbatim excerpt of the shared original, not the complete instruction. Original workflow: https://github.com/felix-sattler-easybits/n8n-workflows/blob/2e9153b83d94fb1200a130f2c3b10a21298ed49b/agentic-document-classification-workflow/agentic_document_classification_workflow.json
Credit: Felix
Source published
Added to Agents In Use
Source checked
Tools and topics
n8n AI Agent · Gemini · Google Drive · Slack
Invoice routing · Google Drive · Agent comparison
Editorial completeness: 100/100. Measures documented fields, not agent performance or verified outcomes.