Sync Discord Scheduled Events to Google Calendar with n8n

Opening Problem Statement

Meet Sarah, a community manager who runs a vibrant Discord server for a gaming group of over 500 members. She regularly schedules various community events like game nights, Q&A sessions, and tournaments using Discord’s scheduled events feature. However, Sarah struggles to keep her Google Calendar in sync with these events, which she uses to manage her personal and professional schedule. Every week, she wastes hours manually copying event details from Discord to Google Calendar. Sometimes, she misses updating event changes, leading to confusion among attendees and missed participation.

Sarah’s manual syncing process is time-consuming and error-prone, causing scheduling conflicts and lost community engagement opportunities. She needs an automated solution to seamlessly synchronize Discord scheduled events with her Google Calendar, saving her precious time and ensuring accuracy.

What This Automation Does

This n8n workflow automates syncing scheduled events from a Discord server to Google Calendar on a regular basis. Here’s what happens when this workflow runs:

• Triggers on a set schedule using the Schedule Trigger node (e.g., every hour or day).
• Makes an authenticated HTTP request to the Discord API to list all scheduled events on the specified Discord server (guild).
• Uses the event IDs from Discord to query Google Calendar and check if corresponding events already exist.
• Determines if each event is new or requires an update by comparing details.
• Creates new events in Google Calendar for any Discord events not yet in the calendar.
• Updates existing Google Calendar events if the Discord event details have changed, including start/end time, location, name, and description.

This automation reduces hours of manual event data entry to zero, eliminates human errors, and keeps Sarah’s personal and work calendars perfectly synchronized with her community’s scheduled events.

Prerequisites ⚙️

• n8n Account: You need an active n8n workflow automation account or self-hosted instance.
• Discord Bot & Token: Create a Discord bot with access to your server and obtain the bot token for authentication. This bot must have permission to read scheduled events.
• Google Calendar Account: A Google account with access rights to a Google Calendar where events will be added/updated.
• HTTP Header Auth Credential in n8n: To authenticate requests to Discord API using the bot token.
• Google Calendar OAuth2 Credential in n8n: To allow the workflow to create and update events in Google Calendar.
• Basic knowledge of managing n8n nodes and workflows.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Create the Schedule Trigger

In the n8n editor, click + Add Node → Core Nodes → Schedule Trigger. This node will start your workflow on a time interval.

In the Schedule Trigger settings, configure the interval you want (e.g., every hour or every day). This controls how often your Discord events sync.

After saving, the node should display a clock icon and show your schedule.

Common Mistake: Forgetting to set the interval properly, which will cause either no runs or too frequent triggering.

Step 2: Define the Discord Server ID Using the Set Node

Add a Set node and name it Configure. This node holds your Discord Guild ID.

Specify a string field named guild_id and enter your Discord server’s guild ID (e.g., 447359847986495498 from the sample workflow).

You can find your guild ID by enabling Developer Mode in Discord and right-clicking your server name, selecting “Copy ID.”

The sticky note attached in the example workflow links to a useful tutorial on getting the guild ID.

Common Mistake: Entering an incorrect or missing guild ID will result in errors fetching events.

Step 3: Fetch Scheduled Events from Discord Using HTTP Request

Add an HTTP Request node named List scheduled events from Discord. Configure it as follows:

• HTTP Method: GET
• URL: Use https://discord.com/api/guilds/{{ $json.guild_id }}/scheduled-events
• Query Parameters: Add with_user_count=true to include attendee counts.
• Authentication: Select HTTP Header Auth with your Discord Bot token.

This node retrieves all upcoming scheduled events for the configured Discord server.

Common Mistake: Incorrect bot token or missing proper authorization in headers will cause 401 Unauthorized errors.

Step 4: Get Matching Google Calendar Events

Add a Google Calendar node named Get events. Configure it with:

• Operation: get
• Calendar: Select the Google Calendar where events will be synced.
• Event ID: use {{ $json.id }} from the Discord event to match an existing Google Calendar event.

This checks if an event with the same ID exists in your calendar.

Common Mistake: Not mapping the event ID correctly can cause unnecessary duplicate event creation.

Step 5: Determine Whether to Create or Update

Add an If node named Create or update? to check if the event exists in Google Calendar.

Set condition: {{ $json.id }} is not empty. If true, the event exists and needs to be updated. Otherwise, create a new event.

Common Mistake: Incorrect condition logic causes either always creating new events or always updating, resulting in duplicates or missed updates.

Step 6: Update Existing Google Calendar Event

For the true branch of the Create or update? node, add a Google Calendar node named Update event details:

• Operation: update
• Event ID: mapped from Discord event ID
• Start and End: Scheduled start and end times from Discord event
• Summary, Location, Description: Mapped from Discord event details

This updates any changes in the Discord event on Google Calendar.

Common Mistake: Not mapping all fields leads to incomplete updates.

Step 7: Create New Google Calendar Event

For the false branch of Create or update? node, add another Google Calendar node named Create event:

• Operation: create
• Start, End, Summary, Location, Description: Mapped from Discord event data
• ID: Use Discord event ID to keep consistency

This ensures any new scheduled event from Discord appears in Google Calendar.

Common Mistake: Not setting the event ID properly may create duplicates and break sync.

Customizations ✏️

• Change Sync Interval: Adjust the interval in the Schedule Trigger node to run every hour, day, or custom frequency to suit your needs.
• Sync to Multiple Calendars: Duplicate the Create and Update nodes and connect them to different Google Calendars for multiple users or teams.
• Add Event Reminders: In the Google Calendar Create/Update nodes, configure reminder settings per event, such as notifications 10 minutes before start.
• Filter Events by Name: Add a Function node before creating/updating to filter events based on keywords in the event name (e.g., only sync “Tournament” events).

Troubleshooting 🔧

Problem: “401 Unauthorized” error in ‘List scheduled events from Discord’ HTTP Request node.
Cause: Incorrect or missing Discord Bot token in HTTP Header Auth.
Solution: Check that your bot token is prefixed with “Bot ” (including the space), and is correctly entered in n8n credentials.

Problem: Google Calendar events are not updating or new events not created.
Cause: Misconfigured event ID mapping or permission issues with Google Calendar OAuth2 credentials.
Solution: Verify the event ID passed matches Discord’s event IDs exactly, ensure OAuth2 credentials have write access to your calendar.

Problem: Duplicates of events in Google Calendar.
Cause: The If node condition is not correctly filtering by event ID.
Solution: Double-check your condition is checking if the event ID is non-empty before deciding to update versus create.

Pre-Production Checklist ✅

• Confirm Discord bot is added to your server and has permission to view scheduled events.
• Test your HTTP Header Auth credentials against Discord API using Postman or curl.
• Verify Google Calendar OAuth2 credentials have both read and write permissions.
• Run the workflow manually with sample data to check if events appear or update correctly in Google Calendar.
• Ensure the Guild ID matches your actual Discord server ID.

Deployment Guide

Activate your workflow in n8n by toggling it to “active.” Confirm your schedule trigger settings are correct to avoid excessive API calls.

Monitor the workflow runs on the n8n dashboard, check logs for errors especially after initial runs.

Optionally, set up alert notifications within n8n or via external tools if any executions fail.

FAQs

Q1: Can I use a personal Discord user token instead of a bot token?
A: No, Discord API requires bots for this kind of scheduled event access to comply with their policies.

Q2: Does syncing consume Google Calendar API quota?
A: Yes, each create or update call uses API quota, so choose your sync interval wisely.

Q3: Is my data secure using this workflow?
A: Yes, all credentials are stored securely in n8n. The workflow does not expose sensitive information publicly.

Conclusion

By setting up this automated workflow, Sarah and anyone running Discord community events can effortlessly keep their Google Calendar perfectly synchronized. This eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and saves hours every week. You’ve learned to configure n8n nodes like Schedule Trigger, HTTP Request with Header Auth, Google Calendar operations, and conditionally branch logic with the If node.

Next, consider expanding this workflow to include event reminders, syncing attendee counts, or pushing notifications to Slack or email whenever a new event is added.

Start automating your Discord community scheduling now and reclaim your valuable time! ⚙️