Your first flow on the canvas

Open the canvas

1. Go to Automations, scroll to the Flows section and click New flow, or Open the canvas on a workspace with no flows yet. The sidebar route is Automate → Flow builder.

   

2. Pick a way in:

   

   • Start from a template: a ready recipe such as Follower-gated link, Free lead magnet or Giveaway entry collector, which you review before saving. Search them, filter By trigger or browse by category.
   • Create with AI: describe the flow in a sentence and HyperDM drafts it. Nothing is kept until you click Use this flow in Review your flow.
   • Start from scratch: a blank Untitled flow with one step, Choose a trigger.

Already have an automation? Open as flow in its row's ⋯ menu rebuilds it as an editable flow, and the automation keeps running. The canvas opens outside the app shell; ‹ Automations at the top left takes you back.

Pick a trigger, then add steps

1. Click the trigger and choose a Trigger type. On Instagram that includes Comment-to-DM, DM keyword, Story reply, Story mention and Manual. A keyword trigger needs its keyword, and Set live stays off until a trigger is picked.

   

2. Add steps from the Add step panel on the left, or double-click empty canvas.

   

3. Drag a step's port onto another step to connect them, or click the port and then the step. To finish a branch on purpose, connect it to End this flow.

   

A message holds up to 3 buttons, with labels up to 20 characters, or up to 11 quick replies, never both. A Smart delay over 24 hours warns you that the window closes: on Instagram the next step reaches the person only if they've messaged you again. On a comment trigger, the first DM may hold one text or one image block. Buttons are fine there, because the tap opens the 24-hour window, so put richer content in the step after the tap.

Count results with an Action step

Two kinds of Action keep count as people move through a flow. Neither sends the person anything, and both are on every plan.

Log conversion

Log conversion counts a result you named, such as a booked call or a paid deposit. Setting up the events and reading the totals are in conversion events.

1. Add an Action step where the result happens and pick Log conversion.
2. Pick the Conversion event.
3. If the event carries a value, choose No value, A fixed amount or From a number field, which reads the number that field holds when the step runs.

   

Each run of the flow counts the step once, even if the run loops back to it. If a conversion can't be logged, the flow carries on. A step with no event picked is a red design check and keeps Set live off.

Update number field

Update number field changes a number field, such as a lead score or a visit count.

1. Add an Action step and pick Update number field.
2. Pick the Number field. Only number fields are listed.
3. Under How to change it, choose Replace with, Add, Take away, Multiply by or Divide by, then type the Amount.

   

4. To work the number out from other fields instead, choose Work it out with a calculation and type it in Calculation, like {{lead_score}} * 2. Insert a field… adds a field for you.

   

A calculation can use numbers, number fields written like {{lead_score}}, + - * / %, brackets, and round, floor, ceil, abs, min and max, up to 200 characters and 10 fields. An empty field counts as 0.

If the new value can't be stored, such as when dividing by zero, nothing changes and the flow carries on. A step that names a field that doesn't exist or isn't a number is a red design check. Rules offer the same action.

What each plan gets

Templates are on every plan, but a template that uses an AI Step or A/B split needs Growth or above to save. That gate applies when you add or save those steps. If your plan goes down, anything the new plan doesn't include is paused, never deleted: a flow with an AI Step or Randomizer, and on Free any flow past your 5 oldest. It says which plan it needs, and moving back up to that plan turns it back on as it was.

Check it, then set it live

1. Open Design checks from the pill beside the flow's status, which reads 1 issue, 1 note or Ready. Red issues turn Set live off: no trigger picked, a button going nowhere, a message with nothing in it, an AI Step with no goal, an Action with nothing set. Grey notes advise without blocking. Fix it → selects the step and puts your cursor in the box the problem is about.

   

2. Click Preview: a phone that plays the flow for a sample person and sends nothing. Tap the choices to walk each branch.

   

3. If the flow came from a template, open Finish setup and swap every placeholder for your own.

   

4. Click Set live. Once the flow is saved, the same button reads Publish until it has been live. On a live flow, Save keeps your edits as a draft, the people in the flow keep the live version, and Publish changes puts your edits live.

   

5. Test from a second Instagram account. Comments and DMs from your own connected account never trigger anything.

Flows and automations on the same keyword

A live automation wins a keyword conflict with a flow. If you rebuilt an automation with Open as flow, pause the original once the flow is live, or it keeps answering and the flow never runs. For DMs the order is fixed: opt-out and opt-in keywords, then keyword automations, then flows, then Recognize intention automations, then the AI agent if you've switched AI replies on. The one-turn hand-off is covered in the AI Step.