Create a Searchable Document Archive with Telegram, Drive, OCR and Airtable

This n8n workflow receives files sent in a Telegram chat, uploads them to Google Drive, extracts text using OCR (for images and PDFs), and stores the extracted content in Airtable for quick search and retrieval.
Users can later search through documents using a Telegram /search command.

Key Features

• Accepts images and documents from Telegram
• Uploads files to Google Drive automatically
• Detects file type and runs OCR if eligible
• Extracts text from images & PDFs via Google Vision
• Stores file metadata + text in Airtable
• Search documents using /search command in Telegram
• Sends result previews and file links
• Error handling & user notifications included

Use Cases

• Personal document vault with search
• Team knowledge filing system
• Receipt & invoice OCR archive
• Legal documents store & retrieval
• Research papers & notes indexing
• Company file inbox for AI knowledge base

Workflow Steps

Step	Action	Description
1	Telegram Trigger	Detects incoming docs/images or /search command
2	Filter File or Search	Routes based on whether message has file or search command
3	Extract Metadata	Reads file info such as name, MIME type, user
4	Download File	Downloads file via Telegram API
5	Upload to Drive	Saves file in Google Drive
6	OCR Check	Determines if file supports OCR
7	Google OCR	Runs OCR for images/PDFs
8	Extract Text	Pulls text output from OCR
9	Merge OCR Text	Combines file data + text
10	Save to Airtable	Indexes with metadata + text
11	Success Reply	Sends link + success message
12	/search Flow	Parse search query
13	Airtable Search	Full-text search for records
14	Send Results	Sends matches to Telegram
15	Error Handler	Notifies user on failure

Input Formats

File Messages Supported

• Images
• PDFs
• Documents

Search Command

/search keyword

Example:

/search invoice

Output

After Upload:

✅ File saved & indexed successfully!
🔗 Drive Link: <link>

After Search:

Returns structured result:

• File name
• Preview text snippet
• Google Drive link

Data Stored in Airtable

Field	Description
File Name	Original name
File Link	Google Drive link
MIME Type	File type
Telegram User	Sender info
OCR Text	Extracted searchable text
Uploaded Date	Timestamp

Technical Requirements

• Telegram Bot Token
• Google Drive API connection
• Google Vision API key
• Airtable API key & table

Benefits

• Automatically organizes Telegram files
• Makes PDFs & images searchable
• Saves manual sorting and indexing time
• AI-ready data storage (future LLM integration)
• Fast search experience right in Telegram

Enhancement Ideas

• Add Whisper for voice message transcription
• Add chat GPT summarization for large docs
• Build dashboard for uploaded files
• Auto-tag documents (invoice, ID, receipt etc.)
• Multi-language OCR support

Status

✅ Ready for production
✅ Handles images, PDFs, and files
✅ End-to-end automation
🛠 Optional: add more AI enrichment later