Triggers
Choose what starts a flow, understand keyword matching, and control when triggers can run.
On this page
What a trigger is
A trigger connects one Instagram moment to one flow: when this happens on this account, run that conversation. Each trigger belongs to a connected account and points at exactly one flow — though several triggers can share the same flow, which is how one welcome conversation can serve comments, keywords, and story replies at once.
Triggers live at Automations → Triggers, where each card shows its event, its conditions, the linked flow, and live counters for how often it has fired.
The events you can automate
Seven Instagram moments can start a flow today:
- DM Keyword — someone DMs you a word you chose (“PRICES”, “GUIDE”).
- Any DM — a catch-all for messages no keyword trigger claimed; ideal for a default welcome.
- Post or Reel Comment — the comment-to-DM engine, scoped to all posts, specific posts, or your next post.
- Story Reply — someone replies to your story, optionally filtered by keywords.
- Story Mention — someone features you in their story.
- Live Comment — keyword offers during a broadcast. An opening private reply must be sent while the broadcast is live; further messages require the person’s response.
- Post @Mention — someone @mentions you in a post or comment. This event alone does not open a DM window; a cold post-mention run cannot send an unsolicited DM.
How matching works
Keyword matching is case-insensitive everywhere — GUIDE, guide, and GuIdE are the same word. Each keyword trigger takes multiple keywords and one of two modes: Contains matches text inside a longer word or message; Exact looks for the complete keyword or phrase within the message. For example, GUIDE matches “GUIDE please!” in both modes, while GUIDES matches GUIDE in Contains but not Exact. Exact does not require the entire message to be only the keyword.
When one event could match several triggers, the rules are predictable: every matching keyword trigger fires, while Any DM stands back and only fires when no keyword trigger claimed the message. And if a contact is mid-conversation — a flow is waiting for their reply — their message resumes that flow instead of starting a new one.
Frequency guards keep automation polite
Each event type carries guards that stop the same person being greeted twice. They’re on by default where it matters, and configurable per trigger:
- Once per post per person — comment triggers respond once per person per post, however many times they comment.
- Once per story / once per live — the story and live equivalents.
- Once per day per contact — available on DM, story-reply, and mention triggers.
- First-time only and tag exclusions — Any DM can greet only brand-new contacts and skip people carrying tags you choose.
Pausing, resuming, and reading the counters
Triggers are active or paused, and the card menu flips between the two — pausing a trigger stops new starts and also attempts to stop in-progress runs of its linked flow. The saved flow definition stays intact. Check the Runs page if several triggers share that flow. The counters tell the operational story: how many times it fired, and how many events matched but were skipped by a frequency guard or a rate limit.
The event picker also previews what’s coming: New Follower automation is designed and visible there, marked “coming soon” until Instagram’s API support is dependable enough to ship it.