Check and deactivate broken job apply URLs with Postgres and Google Sheets

Keep your job listings database clean without manual checks. Every three days, this workflow fetches all active jobs from your Postgres database, runs each application URL through a validation check, identifies dead links via HTTP status codes and soft-404 redirect detection, then marks failed entries as inactive in both Supabase and Google Sheets simultaneously.

Who it's for

Teams running a job aggregator, career platform, or internal hiring tracker who store job listings in Postgres and want stale or broken apply links removed automatically — without waiting for user reports.

How it works

1. A Schedule Trigger fires every 3 days
2. All active jobs are fetched from your Postgres (Supabase) database via a SQL query
3. A Prepare URLs node filters out any rows with missing, malformed, or non-HTTP URLs before they're checked
4. An HTTP Request node sends a HEAD request to each apply_url
5. A Find Dead Jobs code node analyzes each response and flags a job as dead if:
   • Status code is 404 or 410
   • DNS resolution fails (ENOTFOUND)
   • Connection is refused (ECONNREFUSED)
   • A 301/302/307 redirect points to a different path — indicating the job was removed and the ATS is silently redirecting (soft-404 detection)
6. If dead jobs are found, an IF node routes them to both update nodes in parallel:
   • Supabase (Postgres) — status set to inactive via parameterized SQL
   • Google Sheets — row updated to reflect the new status
7. If no dead jobs are detected, the workflow exits cleanly with no writes

Setup

1. Connect your Postgres credentials and confirm the query in the Fetch Active Jobs node matches your table and column names (apply_url, job_hash, job_title)
2. Connect your Google Sheets credentials and set the Resource ID and Sheet Name in the Mark Inactive node
3. Confirm the inactive status value in the Postgres update query matches what your app expects
4. (Optional) Adjust the soft-404 redirect detection logic in the Find Dead Jobs node if your ATS platforms use non-standard redirect patterns

Database columns expected

job_hash (unique identifier), apply_url, job_title, status

Requirements

• Self-hosted or cloud n8n instance
• Supabase (or any Postgres-compatible) database with an active jobs table
• Google Sheets with a matching jobs log