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Challenge 11

Alien Translator

Build an alien translator by prompting n8n's AI AssistantThe n8n AI Assistant is a chat-based builder that creates and changes workflows from natural-language prompts. while exposing every word the language guide cannot explain.

BeginnerComplexity:Time: 15–25 min

Your task

Help event visitors understand alien messages using the supplied language guide. Return an English translation, a confidence scoreA confidence score is a number from 0 to 100 showing how much of the message the supplied dictionary can explain., and every word the guide cannot explain.

Your bonus task

Add an independent back-translationA back-translation converts the English result into the alien language again so it can be compared with the original message. check. Translate the English result back into alien and subtract 20 confidence points when the normalized message changes.

Example use cases

  • Friendly visitors have arrived from another planet, but their pocket translator lost its language pack.
  • A research team needs to decode field notes while clearly flagging unknown words.
  • Event participants want to exchange alien messages without inventing meanings outside the supplied dictionary.

Before you start

  1. 01

    Sign up for n8n Cloud or open an n8n workspace where the preview AI Assistant is enabled.

  2. 02

    Use only AI Assistant prompts to create, add, connect, configure, and revise every node. Do not make those changes manually. You may inspect and test the generated workflow and select credentials when the Assistant asks. Keep the Assistant conversation as a record that every change came from a prompt.

  3. 03

    Use OpenAI Chat Model. On n8n Cloud, select Gateway credits if they are available; otherwise sign up for OpenAI and follow the official n8n OpenAI credential instructions. Never paste a key or other secret into the Assistant chat.

  4. 04

    Open the alien language guide, which contains the authoritative dictionary, grammar rules, confidence formula, and official test messages.

What the workflow must do

  1. 01

    Every Chat TriggerThe Chat Trigger node starts the workflow whenever someone sends a message in the n8n chat. message returns a structured responseA structured response always returns the same named fields and data types so other workflow steps can use them reliably. containing only translation as an English string, confidence as an integer from 0 to 100, and unknownWordsunknownWords is the output list containing every input word that does not appear in the supplied dictionary. as an array of strings.

  2. 02

    For "mira sava nalo vela", return translation "Hello friend from Valencia.", confidence 100, and an empty unknownWordsunknownWords is the output list containing every input word that does not appear in the supplied dictionary. array.

  3. 03

    For "mira zorb nalo vela", return translation "Hello [zorb] from Valencia.", confidence 70, and unknownWordsunknownWords is the output list containing every input word that does not appear in the supplied dictionary. containing exactly "zorb".

Solution

See the workflow challenge answer

Reveal the completed workflow only when you are ready to compare it with your own.

Submit as solved

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Solution

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Mentor review

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Show them your working workflow. Once they approve it, collect the balloon for this challenge.

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