Why Does n8n Send Raw HTML to Google Docs Instead of Formatted Content?

Below is a possible explanation and solution:

What’s Happening

Even though you’re converting your Markdown to HTML correctly with the Markdown node, when you pass that HTML directly to the Google Docs node the node treats the HTML string as plain text. In other words, it’s not “interpreting” the HTML to apply the rich text formatting you expect.

Why It Works in Make

Some platforms (like Make) include an extra processing step (or built‑in support) for importing HTML as formatted content. In contrast, n8n’s current Google Docs node simply creates or updates a document with the provided text and doesn’t translate HTML tags into document formatting.

What You Can Do

1. Check for Alternative Methods:
   Review the available operations of the Google Docs node. At this time, it supports operations like Create, Update, and Get but does not include a specific “import HTML” operation.

2. Use the Google Docs API Directly:
   If you need the HTML to be rendered as formatted content in Google Docs, you might need to use an HTTP Request node to call the Google Docs API’s import endpoint. This gives you more control over formatting and supports HTML import. (Keep in mind that this approach may require additional configuration for authentication and payload formatting.)

3. Workaround via Conversion:
   Alternatively, consider if converting your HTML into the accepted rich text format for Google Docs, or adjusting your workflow to directly generate the desired rich text output, might be possible.

Summary

It isn’t that your Markdown-to-HTML conversion is failing – it’s that the Google Docs node in n8n currently treats incoming HTML as raw text. The solution would be to either use a different method (like an HTTP Request to the Google Docs API) or implement an extra conversion step that translates HTML into the rich formatting Google Docs expects.

I hope this helps clarify the issue and points you toward a solution.