Intelligent Routing with Branching Logic

In our last lesson, we gave our Triage Agent a voice. By using expressions, we transformed its generic pings into dynamic, context-aware notifications. This is a huge step up, but the agent’s logic is still very simple. It shouts everything it learns into a single, crowded room.

Every new issue, whether a critical bug, a feature-request, or a simple documentation typo, gets sent to the same Slack channel. This creates noise and doesn’t help Alex’s team prioritize or focus. A real triage process requires routing.

In this lesson, we’ll teach our agent how to make decisions. We’ll implement a branching logic using n8n’s flow control nodes. By the end, our agent will be able to analyze incoming issues and intelligently route them to different destinations based on their content, bringing order to the chaos.

Conditional logic in workflows

To make decisions, our workflow needs a way to evaluate incoming data and choose a path to follow. This is a core concept in any programming language, and n8n provides visual tools to achieve it. We will explore two primary nodes that are the direct visual equivalents of fundamental control flow statements you use every day.

• The If node is your classic if/else statement. It evaluates a single condition and directs data down a true path or a false path.

• The Switch node is your switch statement. It is designed to handle multiple distinct cases, evaluating data against a series of rules and sending it down the first path that matches.

Simple decisions: The If node (true/false paths)

Let’s start with the most straightforward form of decision-making: a binary choice. The If node is a component that evaluates a single condition. Based on the outcome, it routes all incoming data down one of two dedicated outputs: true or false.

For example, imagine Alex wanted to give ...