الأتمتة والرسائل الاستباقية

Automations let Sela do routine work for you without the AI: assign a new conversation, tag it, notify a teammate, create a work item or call your own system when something happens. This page covers the Automation hub, the rule builder, the built-in automations, scheduled messages, and the state of proactive messages.

Open the Automation hub#

Open Automation in the left rail, then Automation. You need the automations read permission to see the hub. Agents can read it but cannot change it. Managing automations needs the automations manage permission, which managers, admins and owners have.

The hub has four tabs:

If a banner says Automated sending is paused, the workspace-wide outbound pause is on and no automated message is going out until it is turned off.

Plans and limits#

The hub opens on every plan, so an Inbox workspace can still control the built-in automations. Building and enabling custom workflows needs the Operations plan or higher. On a workspace without that access you see "Deterministic automations require Operations or Scale".

Custom workflows do not require an AI add-on or AI credits. Fixed replies, conditions, menus and assignments use the automation plan and run allowance. AI-specific steps such as pausing or handing over to the assistant only affect an assistant already configured for that workspace.

Each purchased branch brings the full allowance, pooled across the business account. Prices and add-ons, including the 5,000-run pack, are on Plans and billing.

What counts as a run. A run is counted just before the first action of a rule that has at least one action. Internal retries do not count again; a replay you start yourself does.

What happens at the limit. Usage warns at 80 percent, is still allowed up to 110 percent, and is blocked at 110 percent. A blocked run fails without executing any action. There are no automatic overage invoices. Buy a run pack or upgrade to continue.

Per rule, the builder allows up to 20 conditions, 20 actions and 10 branches, and a workspace can hold up to 200 rules.

Start from a template#

Templates are the fastest way to a working rule. Open the Templates tab, pick one, fill the setup form (message text, team, delay, and so on), optionally limit it to certain channels, and create it. The result appears under Workflows as a draft.

The templates are grouped into four categories:

Two situations disable a template card:

• It needs an automation plan and the workspace does not have one (shown as a plan requirement).
• Its trigger has no live emitter yet (shown as unavailable). See triggers below.

Build a workflow#

In Workflows, create a new rule. The builder is a graph: a trigger, then conditions, then actions, with branches when you need different outcomes. Besides the actions below, the graph has message and menu steps for sending a reply or a chat menu to the customer.

1. Choose the trigger event.
2. Add conditions, for example channel, priority or tags.
3. Add actions in order.
4. Save. The rule is a draft. It will not run until you explicitly enable it.
5. Enable it from the rule list.

After a rule runs you can open its run history, see failures in the failure queue and Replay a failed run. Archiving a rule stops it but keeps its history. If a rule takes over a built-in surface, the matching built-in is locked so the two do not both send.

The editor also works on phones: select a step from the ordered list, edit it below, or use Add a step on the path you want. Drafts may contain unfinished settings. Turning a workflow on checks its conditions, messages, durations and selected targets. A missing agent, inactive routing team, deleted tag or unavailable webhook prevents activation.

Match an ad or customer message#

Conversation created runs when Sela creates the conversation, which can happen before a customer writes. It is separate from receiving the first message. For a first-message reply, choose Message received and set Run for to First message in this conversation. That choice applies to the first incoming customer message in that conversation, including returning customers who start a new conversation. It does not run again on later messages in the same conversation.

Choose Every customer message to include both the first and later messages, or Messages after the first to exclude the first. Conditions still limit which messages match. The Acknowledge the first message template acknowledges that first message only while the conversation is unassigned. The Reply to every customer message template sends on each matching message with a cooldown of 0. For any send step, 0 disables the cooldown; leaving it blank uses the default 240 minutes. A positive cooldown can suppress a send even though its trigger matched. Repeated delivery of the same incoming event does not send another reply.

Use Customer arrived from an ad (conversation.ad_referred) to respond to a new ad referral, including one received in an existing conversation. With no condition it matches any ad. To target one ad, add Check a condition, choose Ad ID, comparison is, and paste the exact ID. Add a Send a message step on the matching path. The channel must supply the referral; Sela cannot infer an ad from an ordinary message or link. Arqam WhatsApp supports referrals when its bridge includes them with the incoming event.

Use Message received (message.received) to check each incoming customer message. Choose Message text and one of these comparisons:

Missing fields do not match ordinary comparisons, including negative comparisons. Use has no value to test missing data. Multiple conditions can require all matches (and) or any match (or).

Conditions can also check channel, status, lifecycle, priority, conversation tags, assignment, customer stage/segment/tags, ad presence, ad title/body/ID/post/referral and message type. These fields depend on the event and the information available for that customer. Customer fields require a linked customer profile.

For reply and assign, start with Reply and route by keyword, set the word or phrase, response and agent, then enable the draft. Or connect a matching condition to Send a message, followed by Assign the conversation. Assignment respects paused auto-assignment, agent holds, capacity and live presence when online-only is selected. Team routing stays within an active team with routing enabled. When no eligible agent is available, the assignment takes its Skipped path.

Replies, menus and delayed steps#

A workflow that sends a response or accepts a menu answer handles that incoming message, so the AI does not also answer it. A nonmatching rule leaves the normal AI behavior in place. If several enabled workflows match, each may run; use mutually exclusive conditions or shared message cooldowns when only one response is intended.

Menu replies can have an optional Arabic answer. Number matching accepts Arabic and Persian digits, such as ١ for 1, while a sentence such as order 1 is not a numbered menu answer. The matched answer is available to later conditions as reply.text and reply.value. Unmatched replies leave the menu waiting; matching a menu does not restart that same workflow for the reply.

Delay and menu continuations recheck the workflow and conversation before running. Disabling, archiving or editing the workflow stops an old continuation. Closed or excluded imported conversations cannot receive a resumed response. Message cooldowns apply within each workflow unless you deliberately choose a shared cooldown key.

Failed-run replay continues at the failed step and preserves completed steps. If the workflow was edited after the failed run, start a new run with the current configuration. Replayed runs count toward usage. External webhook delivery has its own delivery log and retry behavior.

Triggers#

The full vocabulary has 24 events. Only the events below are emitted by the platform today, so these are what a workspace can build against.

These events exist in the contract but currently have no emitter, so a rule listening for them will never fire: conversation.resolved, conversation.assigned, tool.completed, customer.stage_changed, task.due, appointment.upcoming, payment.failed, whatsapp_flow.submitted and whatsapp_flow.failed. The builder and template list only offer live triggers.

Actions#

Call your own system with execute webhook#

The execute webhook action delivers the trigger payload, signed, to one chosen endpoint. The endpoint must be created first and subscribed to the event that fires the rule, otherwise the delivery fails with "endpoint no longer subscribed to this event". Webhooks need the Scale plan. Payload format, signing and retries are on Webhooks.

Built-in automations#

The Built-in tab lists automations you switch on without building anything.

Out-of-hours reply. Under Business hours you set the timezone, open hours per day and an away message in English and Arabic. Choose how often it repeats (every message, hourly, every 4 hours, every 12 hours or daily), limit it to channels, and optionally suppress the AI reply while you are closed.

Social follow-up. Members with automation read permission can inspect rules. Managing them requires automation manage permission and an active online workspace. Save, toggle and delete actions show progress and explain failures. For WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Telegram you can send an inactivity nudge after a delay, auto-close after a further delay, and send a message after close. The page counts scheduled, sent, closed and skipped items. It respects the 24-hour Meta reply window, so a nudge that would fall outside the window is not sent as free-form text. This needs an automation plan.

Scheduled messages#

To send a reply later, use Send later in the composer: in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or a date and time you pick.

• Earliest 30 seconds from now, latest 30 days ahead.
• Up to 50 active scheduled messages per conversation, 16,000 characters each.
• You can cancel a scheduled message before it goes out.
• A message that could not be sent shows "Scheduled message wasn't sent" with a Dismiss button.

Forms can also be scheduled, up to 7 days ahead. See Inbox and conversations for the composer.

Proactive messages#

Proactive message drafts lets permitted managers prepare a name, trigger, trigger value, delay and message. All rules are drafts, including older rules that were previously marked enabled. They do not send messages to website or storefront visitors. Delivery and click metrics are unavailable.

Draft viewing requires automation read access. Creating, editing or deleting a draft requires automation manage permission and an active online workspace. A save shows progress; failed saves keep your draft open so you can retry. Deletion asks for confirmation.

Campaigns and WhatsApp marketing#

Bulk marketing messages are not part of the Automation hub. WhatsApp templates, the 24-hour window and the messaging wallet are covered on WhatsApp. A separate WhatsApp marketing module appears in the sidebar only for workspaces linked to Arqam.

Examples#

Route new WhatsApp chats to a team. Template: route by channel. Trigger conversation.created, condition channel is WhatsApp, action assign_operator or team assignment.

Tag and notify on escalation. Trigger conversation.escalated, actions add_tag (for example "needs-human") and send_notification to the team lead.

Send paid orders to your fulfilment system. Trigger payment.confirmed, action execute_webhook to your endpoint, and verify the signature on your side.

Create a task when an approval is decided. Trigger approval.decided, action create_ops_item on the relevant board.

Troubleshooting#