Automation rules

Sidebar: Automate → Automations → Rules. Event automations: when something happens to a contact, do something about it. Where an automation reacts to a message, a rule reacts to a change in your data.

Rules live as a section on the Automations page — on a brand-new workspace that page shows starter cards instead, and the Rules section appears once you've built your first automation (you can always open /rules/new directly). Editing a rule opens /rules/{id}/edit.

Starter and up. On Free you can build a rule but not set it live.

Triggers

Date field reached needs a date-type custom field to exist first. If you have none, the form says so and points you at creating one in Contacts.

The Every year option is what turns a birthday field into a birthday campaign: it repeats every year rather than firing once.

Rules fire from automated events only. A flow adding a tag, a webhook creating a contact, an automation capturing an email — those fire rules. Hand-tagging a contact, bulk-tagging a segment, or editing a field yourself in Contacts deliberately does not — otherwise cleaning up your data would blast automated DMs at your audience.

Actions

A rule can do any number of these, in order:

Build a rule

1. Go to Automations and find the Rules section, or open /rules/new.
2. Name it — e.g. New contact → welcome.
3. Under When, pick the trigger and fill in its detail (which tag, which field, how many days before/after a date).
4. Add actions with the action picker. Remove one with its ×.
5. Leave Only once per contact on (the default), or turn it off for genuinely repeatable events.
6. Flip the Live toggle at the top of the editor, then save: with it off the button reads Save draft (saved, not running); with it on it reads Save & go live.

To delete, use Delete in the editor.

Next to New rule there is also Add lead scoring starter rules — one click seeds two draft rules (email captured +30, new contact +10) and creates the lead_score field if needed. They arrive as drafts to review; clicking again never duplicates them.

Only once per contact

On by default — a new rule catches each contact at most once, ever. Turn it off for genuinely repeatable events (a renewal reminder, a repeat-purchase tag).

Two footnotes that answer real "why did/didn't it fire twice" questions:

• Even with the toggle off, a 30-second throttle applies per rule per contact — a burst of identical events inside 30 seconds fires the rule once.
• Date field reached rules ignore this toggle entirely: their repeat behaviour is the Every year option (once ever without it, once per year with it).

What you see in the list

Each rule row shows its name, a Live or Draft badge, a plain-English summary of its trigger, how many actions it has, and how many times it has fired.

Common questions

Rule vs automation vs sequence — which do I want?

• An automation reacts to a message (a comment, a DM, a story reply).
• A rule reacts to a change in your contact data (a tag, a field, a date).
• A sequence is a timed series of messages someone gets after joining.

They compose: a rule can subscribe someone to a sequence or start a flow.

Can a rule send a DM directly? Not on its own — its send actions are Subscribe to sequence and Start flow. Point it at a one-step sequence or a small flow when you want it to message somebody.

Why can't I set my rule live? The rules engine needs Starter or above. See plans-and-billing.md.

My rule fired more than once for the same person. Tick Only once per contact.