Getting started

The setup page at /onboarding defaults to three stages: Goal → Create → Review. Choose what to do first, save a reply or reviewed business facts, then connect Instagram, check its permissions, turn on the automation and test it. Each stage explains what is missing and keeps saved progress when you return. Start with the Three-stage setup sections below. Shopify is optional: paste reviewed product and policy facts for an AI preview, or use your own link for a keyword reply.

An older setup page is retained as a fallback. If your page shows dots instead of the three stage names, use the legacy instructions below.

Confirm your email account

After Create account, the Check your email screen explains the available methods. Open the confirmation link in HyperDM's email, or, when offered, type the code from that same email and press Confirm. Inside Instagram, Facebook or Messenger, the link is shown first so you can continue in your phone's browser; the code remains an alternative when it is available. Resending sends another email, and Change it returns to your form if the address needs correcting.

If your code was confirmed but HyperDM couldn't finish signing you in, use the sign-in recovery offered on the screen. That code has already been used; signing in retries the remaining setup. A failed initial email shows a retry message, so wait for it to be sent before looking for a confirmation link or code.

Legacy setup page: screens with dots

The legacy setup page walks you through your first working reply one screen at a time, and every step is finished on that page — you never have to go to another screen to complete one. The dots along the top are the screens; a dot fills in when its step is done, and the bar under them fills as the required steps complete. Back and Continue move between screens, and you can click any dot to jump. Skip for now in the corner takes you to the dashboard; come back any time and the page opens on the first thing still to do — or on Connect Instagram, if you chose to connect first and haven't connected yet.

The screen-by-screen sections before Three-stage setup describe this legacy page.

Don't have everything to hand? Connect first

Two screens ask for something you may not have on your phone right now: your business information (the AI path) and the link your reply sends (the reply path). While Instagram isn't connected yet, owners and admins — the people who can connect it — get a way past each: right under the empty box, Not to hand? Connect Instagram first (or No link yet? Connect Instagram first under the link box), and above the buttons at the bottom, Set this up later or Add the link later. Either takes you straight to Connect Instagram. Nothing on the screen you skip is saved, and it stays unticked on the dots and the bar. Back on the Instagram screen returns you to the screen you skipped. Until you connect, the page opens on Connect Instagram — in this browser or the one you switch to — unless you go back and finish the skipped screen first or switch to a different kind of goal. After you connect, the Instagram screen's button takes you back to it (Finish setup or Write your reply), and the page keeps opening there until it's done. Skipping never switches anything on: on this page the AI switch stays locked until your information, instructions and limits are in, and there is no reply to turn on until you've written it.

Screen 1 — what should HyperDM do first?

Pick one:

• Send a link from a comment — someone comments GUIDE on your post and gets your guide, freebie or offer in a DM. This builds a comment-to-DM reply.
• Send a link from a DM — someone DMs you PRICE and gets your offer or checkout link straight back. This builds a DM keyword reply.
• Answer questions with AI — reply to product and policy questions from your own business information, within your limits.

Your pick decides which screens follow. You can change it any time; the page redraws the screens and keeps what you already saved. Switching between the comment and DM goals starts a new reply for the new trigger — the one you wrote for the other stays in Automations as it was.

If you leave before picking, you'll get one email about an hour later with the same three choices and a link back to this screen — and nothing more about it once the day-one setup email is due.

The reply path (comment or DM link)

Four steps, in this order: Write your reply → Connect Instagram → Choose a post and turn it on → Test it on Instagram.

Write your reply

1. Keyword — the word people will comment (or DM). GUIDE and PRICE are suggested; change it to anything. It fires when the comment contains the word, ignoring case.
2. Link to send — the full https:// address of your guide, offer or booking page.
3. The DM — the message that carries the link. One friendly line is plenty.

The phone on the screen shows the DM as it will land. For a comment reply it shows the tap-then-link shape HyperDM uses: the opening DM with "Reply and I'll send it right over 👇" and the Send it 👉 chip, then the link once they tap or reply. It is labelled Preview — nothing is sent, and nothing is.

Click Save reply and continue. The reply is saved as a draft and appears in Automations; nothing runs yet. If you later customise it in the full builder (more keywords, a public reply, email capture, a follow-up), editing the keyword, link or DM here keeps all of that.

A comment reply saved here is stored listening on no posts until you choose one on Choose a post and turn it on. If you find the draft in Automations first and click Set live, it asks you to pick a post (or to listen on all posts) instead of going live, so it isn't switched on for every post by accident.

If saving says "Couldn't save just now — try again.", click Save reply and continue again. The first attempt may already have left a draft in Automations; if two drafts with the same name appear there, the older one is the leftover and can be deleted.

No link yet? Tap No link yet? Connect Instagram first right under the link box, or Add the link later under the preview (if you click Save reply and continue with the link empty, the message there points you to it). You go straight to Connect Instagram, and nothing you typed is saved — there is no reply until you come back and click Save reply and continue.

Connect Instagram

Click Continue with Instagram. You are sent to Instagram to authorise HyperDM and brought straight back to this screen — it reopens here even if an earlier step is unfinished, so the result, or the reason it failed, is the first thing you see. Requirements and gotchas are in Connect Instagram — in short:

• A Business or Creator account. A personal account cannot be connected — switch it first with Switch to a professional account, which the line under the button links too.
• Instagram asks you to log in on instagram.com in the browser you're using, even if the Instagram app on your phone is logged in — have your password and 2-step code ready.
• Connect from Chrome or Safari, not from inside the Instagram app. If you opened HyperDM from a link in Instagram, Facebook or Messenger, you are in that app's built-in browser, and an Instagram connection cannot finish there. HyperDM notices and replaces the button with Open HyperDM in your browser — on Android, Open in Chrome takes you across still signed in; on iPhone, tap the ⋯ menu at the top right and choose Open in browser, or use Copy link and paste it into Safari. Either way you pick up exactly where you left off, with no second sign-in.
• If you come back from Instagram without a result, the screen shows these checks under the button — see Troubleshooting.
• If HyperDM asks you to sign in on the way — your session ended before or during the connect — you are brought back to this setup page once you've signed in, not to Settings. Nothing was connected, so click Continue with Instagram again.
• If HyperDM refuses the connect — your role can't connect channels (it may have changed since the page loaded), or connecting Instagram isn't available on HyperDM's side — this screen opens with the reason, and everything you saved stays saved.

Connecting does not turn the reply on. Your draft is still a draft. The screen then reads Instagram is connected: click Continue to choose a post — or, if you clicked Add the link later, click Write your reply to go back and finish it first.

Choose a post and turn it on

For a comment reply:

1. One specific post or reel (recommended) is selected. Pick the post from the strip — it lists your recent posts and reels; Show all opens the rest.
2. Or choose Every post and reel — any comment with your keyword on any post, including posts you publish later, gets the DM.
3. Click Enable this reply.

For a DM reply there is nothing to pick: review the keyword, DM and link and click Turn it on.

Only this reply turns on. AI answers stay off until you switch them on in Agent.

If you haven't written the reply yet, this screen says Write your reply first, and Back to the reply takes you straight there — there is nothing to turn on until it has your link.

Test it on Instagram

1. From a second Instagram account — not the one you just connected — comment your keyword on the post you picked (or send your account a DM containing it). A reply set to your next post is tested on that post once it's published — the first matching comment ties the reply to whichever post it lands on, so don't test on an older one. Copy puts the keyword on your clipboard. This is not a nicety: Instagram will not let us send a DM to the account that owns the post, so a test from your own account can never work. No second account? Ask a friend, or tap Feedback and we will run the test with you.
2. For a comment reply, open the DM that arrives and tap Send it 👉 or reply anything — that is what opens the window for the link.
3. Watch the three status rows: Reply enabled → Opening DM sent → Link sent. The page refreshes itself every few seconds while you are on it; Refresh forces it, and Open Inbox shows the conversation.

What we’ve seen since you enabled it lists every comment or DM that has reached your account since the reply went live, newest first, with what we made of each one — "a comment from your own account", "a comment that didn’t include “keyword”", "matched", "sent" — and what to do about it. It never shows the message itself, only the time and the verdict. If it is empty, nothing has arrived yet. The full list of verdicts is in Troubleshooting.

Link sent only counts a real link delivery since your last edit — a preview, an older test or the opening DM alone does not tick it. Sent is not a read receipt. Finish testing later goes to the dashboard with the reply still enabled.

The AI path (answer questions with AI)

Five steps: Teach it about your business → Make it sound like you → Set your limits → Turn on AI answers → Connect Instagram. The first four work with no channel connected; connecting is the moment it goes live.

Teach it about your business

1. Paste a short FAQ into the box — prices, policies, what you offer. The example under the box shows the shape.
2. Tick These facts are current — the agent can quote them to customers.
3. Click Save and continue.

Not ready to write it? Tap Not to hand? Connect Instagram first right under the empty box, or Set this up later above the buttons. It skips this screen and the next three and takes you straight to Connect Instagram; nothing is saved, and skipping doesn't switch AI answers on. Back on the Instagram screen brings you back here, and so does Finish setup once you've connected.

That paste is saved and reviewed in one go, so the agent can use it immediately — the tick is your review. It lands in Agent → Knowledge under the label business, where you can read, remove or add to it, and where Try a question appears on this screen once something is saved. Imported text (a website crawl, a Shopify sync) still needs its own review on the Knowledge tab; the screen tells you how many passages are waiting. Saving exactly the same text again doesn't store a second copy: the passage already there is reviewed again, which renews its 90-day approval.

Make it sound like you

Pick one of the three example briefs or write your own line, then Save and continue. Reply length, pacing and what the agent handles live in Agent → Voice — where you also test a draft before activating it.

Set your limits

• Cap the discount it can offer is on at 10%. Change the number or switch it off.
• Never say — optional phrases it must never use ("clinically proven"). Type one and press Enter.
• Refund requests are always handed to you, and product cards stay off until you turn them on in Agent → Guardrails.

Click Keep these limits and continue — accepting the proposed limits unchanged counts as reviewing them. You never have to remove a protection to finish the step.

Turn on AI answers

The switch ships off on purpose. On: DMs your keyword replies don't catch get an answer from your information. Off: they land in your Inbox for you. Your keyword replies and flows run either way.

The switch is disabled until information, instructions and limits are done — the screen names what is missing and jumps you there. Not yet — I'll use keyword replies only for now is always available and finishes the step; it is reversible from Agent → Overview.

Connect Instagram

Same as the reply path. Once connected, this last screen shows Setup complete and a suggested next move. If your business information, instructions or limits are still open — say you clicked Set this up later — it shows Finish setup instead, which takes you back to the first of them; saving each one moves you on to the next, through Turn on AI answers.

Three-stage setup page (Goal, Create, Review)

The default setup page shows three stages along the top instead of dots — Goal, Create and Review: what to do first, then one reply (or your business facts), then one review screen where you connect, choose a post and turn it on. The names of the other stages are buttons. One that can't open yet says why and shows you the stage where the missing step is — for example "Review isn't open yet. Save your reply first." The page opens on the first stage with something left to do, worked out from what you have saved, not from which screens you visited. It has no Skip for now in the corner: each stage's own exit sits beside its main button. If your setup page shows dots, this and the other Three-stage setup sections don't apply to you.

Three-stage setup: choose what to do first

On the three-stage setup page, Goal asks What would you like to do first? with the same three choices as the page with dots: Send a link from a comment, Send a link from a DM and Answer questions with AI. Nothing is picked for you. A card may carry a Recommended badge, suggested by the link you followed here — it is still up to you to choose it.

The visual cards show illustrative conversations. They are examples, not your policies or live Instagram messages. Selecting a card saves your choice; Continue opens the next stage. Arrow keys move between the cards, and Space or Enter selects one.

Under the cards, Who are you setting this up for? (Optional) offers My own account, My employer's account or A client's account. It only changes wording — the instructions on the Instagram task and how the summary on Review names the account — and you can leave it blank. A teammate isn't asked; they see which workspace they are setting up instead.

The main button is named for what happens next — Create my first reply or Set up an AI preview — and stays disabled, with "Choose a starting point.", until you pick a card. Explore first takes you to the dashboard without choosing; the setup page stays at /onboarding for when you want it. If you come back to Goal after choosing one, Explore first keeps your place instead: the dashboard's card still brings you back to what you saved.

The header's Look Around First (Skip ↗ on a small screen) offers the same dashboard destination during every stage. It waits briefly for your draft, then lets you leave if the connection stalls. A timeout does not confirm saving; reconnect and check your latest draft when you resume. Unfinished AI facts are restored as unreviewed text and still require approval.

Three-stage setup: make your first reply

On the three-stage setup page, after Send a link from a comment or Send a link from a DM, the Create stage is Make your first reply, with three fields:

1. Keyword — the word people comment (or DM) to get your link. It starts with an example you can change.
2. Link to send — your guide, offer or booking page. It starts empty.
3. Message — the DM they receive with your link.

The preview (under Show preview on a narrow screen) is labelled Preview · nothing sent.

The fields count characters consistently when you use emoji: Keyword allows 40, Link to send allows 2,048, and Message allows 500. A composed DM containing the message and links still has a separate send limit; shorten it if the field names that problem.

1. Type an Example customer comment or Example customer DM, then click Preview. It checks your current edits locally before you connect or turn anything on. Simulation passed · nothing sent means the example matched; after you edit the reply or example input, the preview says The inputs changed. Run preview again. The page distinguishes your current edits from a saved draft.
2. To check an exclusion, open Test trigger rules. It starts collapsed. Simulate a comment from the account owner (or the DM equivalent) is a hypothetical test of the rule, not a check of a connected identity. Select it and click Preview. Working as intended: account-owner comments are ignored. means that exclusion worked. Click Try as a customer to keep your text, reset the test scenario and run the customer example again.
3. For comments, the disclosure also offers Test comment surface. A reply with real posts already selected offers A selected post and A post outside the selected scope. Before you choose a real post, the preview uses Example post; an unbound next-post draft uses Example upcoming post. These are hypothetical examples. They neither select a post nor bind your next post. Connect Instagram and choose or check the real post on Review. Choosing a different real post clears the earlier simulation reassurance. Click Preview after changing a test scenario.

A comment reply shows its public reply, opening DM and any link continuation separately, including extra links already saved in the reply. When public replies have several saved variants, the preview labels the first example; live replies choose one at random. An unsaved reply or a saved draft with post targeting still pending can show an example response. This does not record a live send or prove that a real post is eligible. For a comment reply it shows the comment, the opening DM with its Send it 👉 button, then the link. While the link is empty it shows an example address marked Example link — add yours to save; that example is never saved.

Save draft & continue saves the reply as a draft in Automations — nothing runs — and opens Review. Pressing it twice, or saving from two tabs, still makes one draft. A comment reply listens on no posts until you choose one on Review.

Started the reply in two tabs? If the other tab saved first, this one doesn't save over it. It says "This reply changed in another tab. We've loaded the latest version, and kept your unsaved edits below", fills the fields with the saved words and lists what you typed under Your unsaved edits — Use my edits puts them back, and Save draft & continue then saves whichever you chose. Pressing save again after a slow connection, with the same words, just continues.

Finish later keeps what you typed, without turning it into an automation, and takes you to the dashboard. What you type is also kept as you leave each field or the page ("What you typed is kept"), and put back when you return ("Your unsaved edits were restored"). No link yet? Until a reply is saved, and while Instagram isn't connected, owners and admins get No link yet? Connect Instagram first: it keeps what you typed, then takes you to Instagram, and you come back to this stage.

Drafts belong to the starting point you chose. If another tab changes that starting point, reload the latest setup before saving; the server keeps the other tab's draft instead of advancing the old form. Connecting first keeps incomplete fields and returns you to Create; turning a reply on still requires a saved draft and a working connection.

If the reply is already live, this stage only shows it — "This reply is live — edit it in the builder" — with Edit in the builder and Continue to review. If the draft was deleted, or was changed in the builder into another kind of automation (another trigger or channel, or intention matching), Start a new one starts over and leaves the old automation as it is. Writing a reply needs an owner, admin or agent; anyone else sees why, and Keep draft & explore.

Three-stage setup: see an AI answer before anything goes live

On the three-stage setup page, choosing Answer questions with AI makes Create a preview, not a switch. Under Give your AI something useful to answer from:

1. Paste what you offer and the facts customers ask about into Your business facts. Help me write my facts offers prompts for a shop, services or a creator. Fill in facts you know and leave unknown optional details blank. Use this draft fills the paste box; if it already has text, Replace draft or Keep current draft leaves the choice with you. A starter never invents or approves a policy.
2. Tick These facts are current, and HyperDM may quote them to customers. That tick is your review.
3. Click Save these facts. Saving the same text again adds nothing new, and says so.
4. Under Ask it something a customer would, choose one of up to three questions from your saved facts, or type your own. Choosing a question only fills the input. Edit it and click Run preview. The answer appears in the preview with Answered from: and the sources it used. Nothing is sent to anyone.
5. Click Continue to review. It unlocks only after an answer that came from your facts. If they don't cover the question, the preview is labelled "Not an answer from your facts — this is what it would say instead"; ask something they do cover, or add the missing detail.

Other ways to add facts links to Agent → Knowledge (a web page, a website crawl, Shopify), where what they import must be reviewed before it counts. Finish later waits for your unreviewed draft to be confirmed before leaving. Look Around First waits briefly, then allows departure after 2.5 seconds even if saving remains unconfirmed. Other departures attempt to preserve the latest text; a refused or unconfirmed write cannot guarantee recovery. Recovered text remains unreviewed and its approval box is unchecked. A reload before this departure save can still lose unsaved text. Your custom question survives a facts refresh; a previous result is cleared when those facts change. A preview uses the workspace's daily and monthly AI allowances; when a limit is reached, the preview says so and keeps your question. While Instagram isn't connected and the box is empty, Facts not to hand? Connect Instagram first takes you to Instagram (after saving, it reads Connect Instagram now). Teaching and previewing need an owner or admin; anyone else sees Ask an owner or admin and Finish later. Nothing on this stage turns AI replies on.

Three-stage setup: review and turn it on

For AI, a successful Turn on AI replies confirms configuration only. The next status waits for a real Instagram AI reply. Your AI sent its first reply appears only with matching original provider-send evidence for the current activation and configuration, with an Inbox link. It means Instagram accepted the send; it does not mean the customer read it. Couldn't check means the evidence is unavailable. A preview, connection or spend row never substitutes for this send. Test later & open dashboard leaves live testing optional. The dashboard card updates when you return and opens the remaining check when evidence is still needed.

On the three-stage setup page, Review opens once your reply is saved (or, for AI, after Continue to review). Its heading is Your first reply is ready to review (Review your AI before it answers for AI) until it's on, and Your first reply is live (Your AI is answering DMs) once it is — for AI, AI replies are on, but Instagram needs attention while Instagram isn't sending us messages, and the line under it then names Connect account as still to do. Your setup sums it up — workspace, account, goal, trigger, and the message or, for AI, its limits. Below it are the tasks, in order, each with at most one button; the line under the heading names what's left ("Still to do: …"):

• Connect account — connected and working, it reads Connected as your @handle and has no button. Otherwise it has Connect Instagram (or Reconnect Instagram), Open HyperDM in your browser inside the Instagram app's browser, or See plans when your plan's channel slot is already used. Connected but Instagram isn't sending us messages? The row says so, with Fix in Settings. Connecting turns nothing on, and the notice you come back to says so.
• Choose a post (comment replies) — pick the post or posts from the picker. There is no "every post" choice here. No posts yet? It says No posts yet — publish one on Instagram, then Refresh. Your pick is saved when you press the turn-on button; leave Review before that and you pick again.
• Review AI limits (AI) — how it sounds, what it aims for, the discount cap, phrases it never says and what it hands to you, with the default shown where you set nothing. Edit changes them; These limits are right confirms them and turns nothing on.
• Turn on — the main button names what it turns on: Turn on this reply on 1 post, Turn on this reply for DMs or Turn on AI replies. Until the steps before it are done it is disabled, with the missing one named beside it ("Connect Instagram first", "Choose a post first", "Add reviewed facts first", "Review the AI limits first"). It is the only control on this page that turns anything on.
• Test (optional, once it's on) — the row reminds you to test from a second Instagram account, and Test it now opens the status rows and What we've seen since you enabled it. For AI, DM a question from a second account; the answer is in your Inbox. Your link was sent (Your reply was sent for a DM reply) appears only when the reply this setup made has delivered.

The button beside the main one takes you to the dashboard with everything you saved kept: Keep draft & explore before it's on, Test later & open dashboard after, and Open dashboard once it has delivered. A row you can't act on says who can — "Ask an owner or admin to connect Instagram. Your draft is saved." (once it's on, it says it's on but can't run until Instagram is reconnected).

Three-stage setup: finish later and come back

On the three-stage setup page, Finish later, Keep draft & explore and Test later & open dashboard keep what you saved and take you to the dashboard, which then shows one card for the next step while there is one — Finish your draft, Connect account, Review and turn on or Test your live reply (Choose what to set up first if no goal was picked). Continue setup reopens the setup page on the right stage; see Home: your dashboard. Explore first before you've chosen a goal is different: it is a choice not to set up now, so no card appears and signing in doesn't bring you back here. Once a goal is chosen, Explore first (back on Goal) keeps the card like the others. A teammate's Explore first doesn't hide the owner's card.

Why signing in opened the setup page

For a workspace's first seven days, signing in (from the sign-in page, not from a link to a particular page) opens this setup page instead of the dashboard — but only for the workspace's owner, only while it is their one workspace, and only until setup has started. Any of these counts as started: an automation saved (a draft is enough), knowledge added (your business information, say), a channel connected, or, on the three-stage setup page, a goal confirmed or Explore first. After that, or after the seven days, signing in opens the dashboard (the workspace list, for someone in more than one). Signing in never sends a teammate you invited to setup.

Roles

Teaching it about your business, instructions, limits and the AI switch need an owner or admin. Writing and enabling a reply needs owner, admin or agent. Connecting needs owner or admin. Other roles see each screen's status but not its controls, and the page never sends them back to a step they can't do: the Instagram screen says who can finish it, and the way on ends at Go to dashboard. On the three-stage setup page the same roles apply, and running an AI preview needs an owner or admin too. Signing in sends only the workspace's owner to setup. See Roles and permissions.

What to read next

• Set up comment-to-DM — everything the full builder adds to the reply you just made: more keywords, public replies, email capture, follow-ups.
• Set up the AI sales agent — the agent end to end.
• Core concepts — conversations, the 24-hour window, consent, grounding.
• Home: your dashboard — reading your home screen.
• Plans and billing — what Free includes and what each paid tier unlocks.

Optional tools after your preview

After a successful preview you can choose tools under Optional: What other tools do you use with HyperDM?: Shopify, Klaviyo, Google Sheets, HubSpot, WhatsApp or Custom Webhooks. Tap a selected chip again to remove it. You can leave every chip unselected and continue; the choices help HyperDM understand what you use and do not connect those tools. Your choices stay selected while you edit your facts and run another preview. This optional background save never prevents you continuing.