Inbox Assistant — Full Setup Guide

Inbox Assistant manages your Instagram DMs with AI-assisted replies, templates, and audience filters. Designed to reply naturally during your working hours and hand off to you when conversations need a human.

Quick start

1. Open Inbox Assistant from the sidebar
2. Pick the Instagram account you want to manage
3. Add your OpenAI / DeepSeek / xAI API key (see OpenAI Setup)
4. Write your System Prompt — describes your brand voice
5. Set Working Hours
6. Set Status → Active, click Save

You're done. Inbox Assistant starts replying within minutes.

💡 Make sure your Instagram account is properly connected (no Re-login needed   flag) before activating.

1. AI Configuration

Open Account Settings → AI Configuration:

• AI Provider — OpenAI (recommended default), DeepSeek (cheaper), or xAI (Grok)
• Model — start with gpt-5-mini   or deepseek-chat   (cheapest, good enough); upgrade to gpt-4.1   only if quality matters more than cost
• System Prompt — the most important field. Describe what role the AI plays. Example:

You are the account manager for @username. Answer questions about our services, products, and content. Keep replies short (under 2 sentences). Use casual tone. End with a question when possible. If asked for sensitive info (pricing, contracts, refunds), say you'll connect them with a team member.

• Tone & Language — pick how formal/casual responses should be, plus a default language

Personalization variables

Drop these into your prompts/templates and they auto-fill per conversation:

2. Response Templates

Templates fire BEFORE AI replies when keywords match — so customers get instant, accurate answers to common questions instead of AI guesses.

To create a template: open Templates → click New → set:

• Trigger keywords (e.g. price, pricing, cost, how much  )
• Template text (Spintax + variables supported)
• Priority (higher fires first if multiple match)

💡 Use templates for FAQ-style messages (pricing, hours, location) and leave conversational chats to the AI.

3. Welcome Messages

Two types — different triggers:

New conversation welcome

First-ever message to a new contact. Configure under Welcome DM:

• AI-generated — the AI writes a personalized welcome based on your prompt (default)
• Static — your fixed message (supports Spintax + variables)

Follower welcome

Sent automatically when someone new follows your account. Configure under Follower Welcome DM:

• Detection runs every 10 minutes
• Customizable delay (queue → send after X minutes for natural pacing)
• Optional follow-up message if they didn't reply after N hours
• Audience filters: skip private accounts, skip verified, skip accounts with no profile picture, etc.

4. Working Hours

Open Working Hours:

• Default hours (e.g., 9 AM – 6 PM)
• Per-day schedule if your hours differ by weekday
• Timezone — match your audience's primary timezone
• Offline message — sent automatically outside working hours (or stay silent)

💡 Set hours that look like a real business owner's day — 24/7 replies look bot-like.

5. Human Handoff

When a conversation needs you personally, Inbox Assistant pauses AI on that thread and pings you.

Triggers you can configure:

• Keyword-based — manager, owner, complaint, refund   flag for human review
• Manual — you tap "Handoff" on any thread
• Custom rules — combinations of conditions

Handed-off threads show in the Conversations dashboard with a clear flag. You reply manually from there.

6. Blacklist / Whitelist

Open Blacklist & Whitelist:

• Blacklist — usernames you never want auto-replied to
• Whitelist — only auto-reply if the user is in this list (rare; for VIP-only setups)
• Bulk import — paste a list at once

Combine with Audience Filters (skip private accounts, skip no-pic, skip verified) to keep your AI from messaging bot-looking accounts.

7. Realtime DM Workflows

For time-sensitive responses (lead inquiries, urgent support):

• Open Realtime DM → enable
• Set trigger keywords (e.g. BUY, DEMO, URGENT  )
• Pick which template fires immediately

Realtime fires within seconds via MQTT — much faster than the standard 1–2 minute inbox poll.

8. Language Detection

Automatic. Inbox Assistant reads the language of each incoming message and replies in the same language. Based on message content (not username or profile).

To force a specific language regardless of input → set Preferred Language under AI Configuration.

9. Conversations Dashboard

Manages all your AI-handled threads in one place:

• Search — keyword or username
• Filter tags — Hot Lead, Customer, Support, Spam, VIP, Follow Up, New  
• Status filter — Active / Handoff / Closed
• Bulk actions — tag, close, archive, delete multiple threads at once
• Export to CSV — for backup or external analysis

Tag threads as you reply so your team can prioritize.

10. Activity Log

Real-time stream of every reply, template fire, handoff, and welcome message. Useful for:

• Confirming AI behavior is good
• Spotting strange replies before customers notice
• Diagnosing why a conversation didn't reply (account flagged, working hours off, etc.)

11. Stats / Analytics

Open the Stats tab. Shows:

• Total conversations handled
• Daily messaging volume
• AI response success rate
• Welcome messages sent
• Error counts

Review weekly. If errors spike or response rate drops, check Activity Log and account health.

12. Wolf Alerts (Telegram)

Get push notifications on your phone:

• Daily activity summary
• Account disconnect / re-login required
• Errors

Setup: see Wolf Alerts guide.

13. Copy / Paste Settings

Save hours of setup time when adding more accounts:

1. Open a configured account → click Copy Settings
2. Open the new account → click Paste Settings → confirm
3. Conversation history is NOT copied (each account has its own threads) — only AI config, templates, working hours, handoff rules

Recommended limits

💡 Inbox Assistant is the highest-risk plugin for Activity Pauses — DMs are the most-monitored action on Instagram. Keep limits conservative for the first month.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Vague System Prompt — leads to generic AI replies. Spend 15 minutes writing a detailed prompt
• ❌ Skipping Working Hours — 24/7 replies look bot-like
• ❌ Welcome DM on day 1 of a new account — wait at least 30 days
• ❌ No templates for FAQ questions — AI guesses pricing when a template should give exact numbers
• ❌ Forgetting to monitor Activity Log — odd AI replies stack up before you notice

Need help?

Reach out to your Growth Team — we can review your System Prompt, templates, and conversation patterns. AI quality depends heavily on prompt quality, and we know what works for various niches.