User Guide · Automation

Auto-reply & away hours

Greet every new conversation and tell customers when your team is away, using workflows and your AI agent.

Inboxi gives you two ways to answer automatically. If an AI agent handles your conversations, it replies to everything itself, and its welcome and off-hours messages are part of the agent. If people handle your conversations, use the ready-made auto-reply workflows for welcome and away messages.

You want…Use
A greeting on every new conversationWelcome Message workflow template
An away message on every new conversationAway Message workflow template
An away message only outside business hoursAway Message (Business Hours) workflow template
A reply when certain words appearA workflow with Message Received + Contains Keyword
Answers to any question, 24/7An AI agent

Welcome and away messages with workflows

inboxi.app/settings/workflows/templates
The Auto-Responder templates.
  1. 1Welcome Message.
  2. 2Away Message.
  3. 3Away Message (Business Hours): only outside 9 AM, 5 PM.
  1. 1
    Open the templates
    Settings › Workflows › New Workflow, then the Auto-Responder category.
  2. 2
    Use a template
    Click Use Template on Welcome Message or Away Message (Business Hours).
  3. 3
    Edit the text
    Click the Send Message node and write your message. Use $contact.name to greet by name.
  4. 4
    Adjust the hours
    For the business-hours version, click the Business Hours node and set Start Hour and End Hour (0-23).
  5. 5
    Publish
    Save, then Publish to switch it on.
Conversation Opened
then
Business Hours 9-17
condition
false
Send Message
“We’re away, back at 9 AM”
Business hours are checked against the server clock. Send a test message outside your hours to confirm the timing.

Keyword replies

To answer specific words (for example “price”, “location”, “refund”), create a workflow with the Message Received trigger, add a Contains Keyword condition with your comma-separated keywords, and connect a Send Message action to the true branch. The Keyword: Refund Requests template is a good starting point.

Auto-replies with an AI agent

In the agent editor's Behavior tab, Conversation Flow has a Welcome Message (sent when a new conversation starts) and an Off-hours Message (sent outside business hours). Add your opening hours to the agent's instructions with the Business hours prompt template so it can answer “are you open?” correctly.

Avoid double greetings: if an AI agent already sends a welcome message, do not also publish a Welcome Message workflow.
Workflows
Every trigger, action and condition.
Follow-ups
Nudge silent customers automatically.