Automations

Automations are visual workflows that fire when something happens on your social account — a comment with a keyword, a new follower, an incoming DM. You design the flow once, and TribeNest runs it for you every time the trigger hits.

Find them under Social then Automations.

The automations list

The main page shows a table of every automation you have built, with:

• Name and a short description.
• Status — Active, Paused, or Draft.
• Trigger — what kicks it off (Comment, Follow, etc.).
• Created — how long ago.
• An action menu for each row — Edit, Activate, Pause, or Delete.

Click any row to open its detail page, where you can see the canvas, attribution, and the contacts who have entered the flow.

Create an automation

1. Click Create Automation in the top right.
2. Step 1 — Details. Name it, optionally describe it, pick the Instagram account it runs on, and (optionally) scope it to a single post.
3. Step 2 — Template. Pick a starting template or Start from scratch for a blank canvas.
4. Step 3 — Build. Design the flow on the visual canvas, then click Create Automation in the header.

Scoping to a specific post

In Step 1, the Post to apply automation to field lets you scope a comment-based automation to a single post. Leave it empty to run on all posts on that account.

Templates

The template gallery includes ready-to-use flows you can tweak. Two are available out of the box:

• Comment to DM with link — Someone comments a keyword, you publicly reply, and you DM them with a "Send me the link" button. Tapping it sends a follow-up DM with your link.
• Comment to email collection — Someone comments a keyword, you publicly reply, DM them asking for their email, validate it, and add them to one of your email lists.

You can also pick Start from scratch for a blank canvas.

The visual builder

The canvas has three parts:

• Node Palette on the left — every node type, drag-and-droppable.
• Canvas in the middle — where you assemble the flow.
• Configuration panel on the right — slides in when you click a node, lets you tweak its settings.

A mini-map in the bottom corner helps you navigate complex flows. Standard pan and zoom controls live in the bottom-left.

Building a flow

1. Drag a Trigger node onto the canvas first — every flow starts with one.
2. Drag in the actions, conditions, and waits you need.
3. Connect nodes by dragging from a source handle (small dot at the bottom of a node) to a target handle (top of the next node).
4. Click any node to open the configuration panel and set its details.
5. Use the undo and redo buttons (top-left of the canvas, or Ctrl/Cmd + Z and Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z) to step backward and forward through your edits.
6. To delete a node, click it and click the small red X that appears above it, or press Backspace.

You can only have one trigger per automation.

Triggers

The trigger is the entry point. Pick the type in the node's configuration panel:

• Comment on Post — fires when someone comments on the scoped post (or any post on the account, if you did not scope it). You can list keywords — leave empty to fire on every comment.
• New Follower — fires when someone follows the account.
• Direct Message Received — fires when someone DMs the account.

Conditions

A Condition node branches the flow based on something the fan typed or did. Configure:

• Check this field — pick from common options like the user's reply / tapped button, the comment text, or the sender's username. Or pick Custom field to specify your own.
• Operator — Equals, Contains, or Not Equals.
• Value — what you are comparing against.

The condition has two output handles — Yes (green, left) and No (red, right). Wire each branch to whatever should happen next.

Actions

Send DM

Sends a direct message to the fan. Just type the message body.

Reply to Comment

Posts a public reply to the comment that triggered the flow. You can add multiple variations — TribeNest picks one at random per run so replies feel less robotic.

This action only works under a Comment trigger.

DM with Buttons

Sends a DM that includes interactive buttons. Pick the button type:

• Quick Replies — small chips that appear under the message and disappear once tapped. Up to 13 chips.
• Inline Reply Buttons — buttons inside the message bubble that stay visible. Up to 3 buttons.
• Link Buttons — inline buttons that open a URL when tapped. Up to 3 buttons.

Each button label is capped at 20 characters. For Quick Reply and Inline Reply buttons, the label is sent back when tapped — pair them with a Wait for Reply + Condition to branch on which one was clicked.

Add to Email List

Adds the contact to one of your email lists. If the list has a welcome flow, the fan receives it. You can also create a brand-new list right from this node.

This is what makes "comment your email and I'll send you the link" flows possible — pair it with Validate Input to make sure you only add valid emails.

Waits

Wait for Reply

Pauses the flow until the fan responds. Toggle Wait indefinitely for an open-ended wait, or set a timeout in minutes with one of two on-timeout behaviors:

• Stop Automation — end the run quietly.
• Continue to Next Step — proceed even though there was no reply.

Wait for Click

Pauses after a DM with link buttons until the fan taps a link, or until a timeout passes. The node has two output handles — clicked and not clicked — so you can branch on what they did. Set the timeout in minutes, hours, or days (max 30 days).

Validate Input

Checks that a fan's reply is a valid email or phone number. Wire this after a Wait for Reply node when you are collecting contact info.

• Valid branch — flow continues with the validated value flowing into downstream nodes (so Add to Email List picks it up automatically).
• Invalid branch — TribeNest auto-DMs the error message you configured and the flow loops back. Wire this branch back to the Wait for Reply so the fan can try again.

Saving and validating

When you click Create Automation (or Save Changes when editing), TribeNest validates the structure first — every flow needs a trigger, every node needs to be reachable, and certain nodes (like Reply to Comment) only make sense under specific triggers.

If something is wrong, an error toast tells you what to fix.

Activating an automation

Brand-new automations are created in Draft status. Nothing happens until you activate.

1. Open the automation's detail page.
2. Click Activate in the header.

The status flips to Active and the flow starts firing. To stop it temporarily, click Pause. To turn it back on, click Activate again.

You can also activate or pause from the three-dot menu on any row in the automations list.

Editing an automation

Open the automation and click Edit in the header. The full builder opens with everything pre-filled. Make your changes and click Save Changes.

You can edit an active automation — the next run after you save uses the updated flow.

The detail page

Every automation has a detail page with three sections:

• The canvas — a read-only render of the flow so you can see at a glance what is going on.
• Link attribution — only shown when there is data. Tracks total clicks, orders, and revenue tied to the link buttons in your DMs, broken down by button.
• Contacts — every fan who has entered this flow, with their current step and run status. Click any contact to see their full history.

The Pick giveaway winners button at the top of the contacts section lets you randomly pick winners from everyone who completed the flow — useful when you ran a giveaway and need to draw names.

Templates and starting from scratch

Templates seed the canvas with a working flow that you can tweak. The two built-in templates are battle-tested patterns:

• Comment to DM with link is the classic "comment a keyword to get the link" flow with a confirmation tap.
• Comment to email collection captures emails into one of your lists, with input validation and a thank-you DM.

If you go with Start from scratch, you get an empty canvas and full creative control.

Where to go next

• Need a list to add fans to? Set one up in Emails.
• Want to send fans somewhere specific? Build a Smart Link and drop the URL into a link button.
• Want to see who showed up? Browse Contacts.
• Want a copilot to help design a flow? Ask Mira.