Automation flows
Build a no-code WhatsApp chatbot on a drag-and-drop canvas — triggers, message steps, branching and handover.
Automation flows are chatbots you draw rather than code. Drag nodes onto a canvas, connect them, and configure each one in a side panel.
Triggers
Set the trigger on the Start node. Four of them match an inbound message:
- Exact keyword — the message is exactly
menu - Contains keyword — the message mentions
priceanywhere - First-ever message — the contact has never written before. This is the one to use for a welcome flow.
- Fallback — nothing else matched
The other four start from an event rather than from typing:
- Form submitted — a customer submits a WhatsApp Form. Pick a specific form or any form. Every answer arrives as a variable, so a flow can open with "Thanks , we have you down for ".
- Automation finished — another flow reached its End node. Use this to split a long flow into readable pieces; everything the first flow collected carries over. A chain stops after three flows, and a flow cannot be restarted on the same chat straight away, so a loop cannot run away with your send quota.
- Order received — a customer submits a cart. This one also needs Settings
→ AI → Order handling set to Run an automation, otherwise the order is
handled there and the flow never fires. Available as variables:
{{order_ref}},{{order_total}},{{order_items}},{{order_item_count}}. - AI agent — the AI hands the conversation over. The flow only starts when the agent decides to; see Setting up your AI agent.
Triggers can be narrowed by funnel stage, tag or assigned agent, so a flow can
apply only to, say, contacts tagged wholesale.
What event triggers will not do
- Only one flow runs on a chat at a time. If a customer is already mid-flow, an event will not start a second one on top of it.
- The 24-hour window still applies. WhatsApp only accepts free-form messages within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Form and order triggers are themselves customer messages, so they are always inside it.
- Opted-out customers are skipped, as everywhere else.
- If a message is rejected mid-flow, the run now stops and is marked failed rather than silently walking to the end with the customer hearing nothing.
Building blocks
- Message — send text, with personalisation variables
- Media — send an image, video, audio or document
- Question — ask something and store the answer
- Condition — branch on what the contact said or on their tags and stage
- Delay — wait before the next step
- Assign / tag / set stage — update the CRM mid-conversation
- Hand to AI — pass the conversation to the AI agent
- Hand to human — stop and put it in the inbox
Precedence
Automations take precedence over the AI agent. If a flow is running on a conversation, the AI stays quiet until the flow ends or hands over. That is the usual reason for "the AI is not replying" when everything else looks correct.
You can end a running flow for a single conversation from the chat controls.
Testing
Message your own number and walk the flow yourself. Watch it advance in the inbox — a flow that gets stuck is usually waiting on a Question node whose expected answers do not match what you typed.