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Automations

Keyword-triggered Instagram replies. Someone comments "GUIDE" on your post, they get a DM with the link.

Studio, then Automations. Requires a connected Instagram account.

The rule that makes this safe

Automations send YOUR text, never AI text

The automation engine never generates or rewrites anything. It sends exactly the reply you wrote.

Your approval is the moment you activate the automation, and that is audited: who activated it and when. New automations are always created inactive.

The engine has no path to any AI service at all.

Triggers

TriggerFires on
comment_keywordA comment on your post
dm_keywordA direct message
story_replyA reply to your story
story_mentionA story mentioning you
dm_defaultAny DM that matched nothing else

Matching

Keywords, up to 20, matched as contains, exact or starts_with. Up to 20 exclusion keywords.

A comment automation with no keywords runs on any comment. A DM keyword automation requires at least one.

Scope to specific posts by picking them, up to 50, or leave it open to all posts.

First match wins, then evaluation stops. Post-scoped comment automations are tried before all-posts ones. Plain DMs try the keyword automations first and fall through to dm_default afterwards.

Actions

Send a DM, up to 1,000 characters, with up to 3 link buttons.

Reply publicly to the comment, up to 5 variations of 300 characters each, one picked at random so your comment section is not full of identical replies.

Apply tags to the contact.

Everything also lands in your Inbox, so you see the conversation.

Opt-in flow

Instead of DMing immediately, send a button. The DM is delivered when they tap it.

This is worth using: an unsolicited DM is more likely to be marked as spam than one the person asked for.

You can also gate on following you, with your own message for people who do not.

Guards

Several, and they matter:

GuardWhat it prevents
Redelivery checkThe same person triggering twice on the same comment
One private reply per commentMeta's hard limit, across all your automations
once_per_contactRepeat sends to the same person
CooldownRapid repeat triggering. Required for dm_default, 30 minutes to 7 days
Follower gateSending to people who do not follow you
Require and skip tagsRunning for the wrong segment
Self-comment guardYour own comments triggering your own automations

Activating

Automations are created inactive. Toggle to activate, which is the approval moment and is recorded.

Your plan caps how many can be active at once. Hitting it names the limit and asks you to pause one or upgrade.

Dry run

Automations default to sending nothing

The dry-run switch defaults to on. While it is on, every match is logged as dry_run and no DM or public reply is sent.

Test with it on. Turn it off when you are sure. If your automation "works" but nobody receives anything, this is why.

Activity

The second tab shows every run: sent, dry_run, skipped (with the reason) or failed.

The skip reasons are the useful part. They tell you which guard stopped a run, which is nearly always the answer to "why did this not fire".

Syncing posts

To scope an automation to specific posts, sync your existing Instagram posts into the picker. Throttled to once every 5 minutes per brand.

Postlyra, by MAVA Design