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 two cards in a new workspace's Automations list are ours. The first is 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, and creating one paused is never refused for it.

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.

Both Examples are also in the template library, as dm-keyword-link and dm-follower-gate, beside six more starting points. Deleting an Example card doesn't remove it from the library: click New automation and pick it again. See Start from a template.

The second one: a follower gate

Under it sits "Example: follow first → DM your link", also paused, also carrying an Example chip. It is the flow people ask us for most: follow me and I'll send you the link.

It is a DM trigger on VIP, and it has four pieces worth opening the card to see:

1. The ask. A DM telling them to follow and reply when they have.
2. The follower arm. A branch whose first arm tests follows your account — a live check against Instagram at that moment — and sends the link when it passes.
3. The otherwise arm. Where a non-follower goes, and it loops back to the check, so their next reply is checked again.
4. The way out. An after N tries arm, set to 2, so nobody is asked forever. It sends a friendly sign-off and does not hand over the link — a gate whose exit gives the thing away isn't a gate.

Making it yours is the same shape as above — change the keyword, write the three messages, pick the connection, switch it on — plus one decision the first example doesn't have: how many re-checks you'll allow before letting someone go.

Two honest notes. If Instagram can't confirm the follow, the run takes the otherwise arm, so a real follower can occasionally be asked again; that's why the message says we can't see the follow rather than accusing them. And if your offer was never really gated, point the after N tries arm at the link step instead — one dropdown, and the nagging stops mattering.

Where to go next

• Build your first automation — a step-by-step walkthrough.
• Start from a template — pick a ready-made keyword, follower-gate, comment or FAQ automation and change the words.
• 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.
• Write an automation as steps — build one from a short document instead of the canvas, for the CLI, the API, or an AI assistant.
• 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.