Free agents + LAUNCH30: 30% off paid agents until 31 Dec 2026 (one-time purchases only) See free agents
Oarsman AI Sign in

Review Reply Drafter with Owner Approval / Docs

Review Reply Drafter with Owner Approval: troubleshooting

Top 5 setup problems (these match the setup page's messages)

Open setup-page/index.html and press Test it, or use Something stopped working? to rerun the checks.

  1. "Your n8n refused the key (HTTP 401/403)". The Header Auth credential on Receive new review must have Name X-Api-Key and exactly the same Value as your caller sends. Check for spaces.
  2. "Webhook does not exist (HTTP 404)" or "Could not reach…". Publish (activate) the workflow and use the Production URL ending in /webhook/new-review, not the Test URL.
  3. "n8n hit an error (HTTP 500)". Open Executions and click the red node. Usually the Google Sheets login is not picked, the Sheet ID is wrong, or a tab is not named exactly Drafts / Owner first.
  4. Every review goes to Owner first. Read the notes column: "sign-off missing" means the signoff setting does not match; "AI fallback" means the AI call failed (OpenAI credential, ai_base_url, ai_model).
  5. Repeats are drafted twice. Duplicate memory only works on the published Production URL, not on manual or Test URL runs.

Still stuck? Use the support page: https://oarsmanai.com/support/

Every review goes to Owner first

Check the notes column. If it says sign-off missing, make the signoff setting match how you want replies to end. If it says AI fallback, check your AI key and model name.

401 or 403 from the webhook

The request must send the header named in your Header Auth credential with the same value.

The webhook returns 401 or 403

The caller must send the header you set in the Header Auth credential (name and value). Check for spaces.

Nothing happens when I send a test

The workflow must be published (active). The test URL only works while the editor is listening. Use the production URL.

Duplicates are not skipped while testing in the editor

n8n only keeps the duplicate memory (static data) for published runs, not manual test runs. Test duplicates on the production URL.

AI step always falls back to rules

Check the OpenAI credential on Ask AI model, the ai_base_url and that ai_model exists on your account. Open the failed execution to see the error.

Google Sheets says the sheet or tab is not found

Use the sheet ID (not the full URL) and the exact tab names. Share the sheet with the Google account in the credential.

I got a failure email

It names the step and links the execution. Fix the cause, then open the execution and click Retry. Nothing was marked as done, so the retry is safe.

FAQ

Does it post replies to Google for me? No. It drafts and checks. You copy the approved reply to Google or any other review site, so nothing goes out without you.

Where do reviews come from? Anything that can send JSON to a webhook: a form, a Google Sheets row sent with an n8n Sheets trigger, or your review tool's webhook.

Which AI model does it need? Any OpenAI-compatible chat model that can return JSON. The model name is one field in Settings.