An automation is one rule: when this happens, do that. A trigger watches your Instagram, and when it matches, big runs the actions you connected to it.

First time here? Press Show me around in the corner of the Automations screen for a guided, in-app walkthrough — it covers the same ground as this page, pointed at the real controls.

The shape of an automation

Every automation is a small graph that starts with a trigger and flows into one or more actions:

• Trigger — what big watches for. Today that's a comment on one of your posts, an incoming DM, or a reply to one of your stories.
• Actions — what big does in response:
  • Send a DM — message the person directly.
  • Reply to the comment — post a public reply under their comment.
  • Branch — take a different path depending on the situation, so one automation can handle several outcomes. A branch can route on what the person said (whether their reply contains certain words) or on whether they follow you. You can also build a bounded "ask them to follow, then re-check" loop with a limit on how many times it retries.

A trigger flows into a send-DM, a reply-comment, or a branch; a branch then flows into its own actions. You build this visually — there's nothing to write.

A simple example

When someone comments LINK on my latest reel then reply to the comment with "Check your DMs!" and send them a DM with my link.

That's two actions hanging off one comment trigger.

The example we left you

The first card in a new workspace's Automations list is ours. It's called "Example: keyword → DM your link" and it carries an Example chip: a DM trigger on the keyword LINK with one send-DM action hanging off it — the smallest automation that still has a shape worth reading.

It does nothing as it stands, deliberately. It is switched off, and no Instagram account is picked for it, so there is nothing for it to watch and nowhere for it to send. A paused automation also spends none of your active-automation cap.

Turning it into a real one is four edits:

1. Change the keyword. Open the card and replace LINK with the word you want people to send you. Triggers has the matching rules.
2. Write the DM. Replace the placeholder message with your actual link or offer. Sending DMs covers what you can and can't put in one.
3. Pick the connection. Choose which connected Instagram account it watches. Until you do, it has none.
4. Switch it on. It starts watching at that point, and starts counting toward the cap.

It's a DM trigger rather than a comment one because a comment automation has to name the posts it watches before it will save, and we can't know which of your posts you meant. Want it to watch a post's comments instead? Change the trigger and pick the post, as in Build your first automation.

Or delete it. It's yours, deleting it is permanent, and nothing puts it back — see Your example automation and form.

Where to go next

• Build your first automation — a step-by-step walkthrough.
• Triggers — how comment, DM, and story-reply matching works.
• Sending DMs — what you can and can't send.
• The 24-hour window — the timing rule that decides whether a DM can go out.
• Run statuses — what active, awaiting_reply, completed, expired, and halted mean.
• Manage posts & comments — moderate the comments on the posts your automations watch.
• The inbox — read and reply to the DMs your automations generate.
• How we compare — sourced, dated comparisons with the other DM automation tools, if you're weighing a move from one.