An action is the step where a flow changes something: it adds a tag to the contact, writes information to the contact card, assigns the conversation to an agent, or hands the conversation to a human. Message steps talk to the customer and conditions decide; actions organise the data and the workflow behind the scenes.
💡 An action step sends the customer nothing. There is no exception: even "Notify the team" is visible only to your team, inside the panel.
What an action does
An action step carries one or more actions that run in order. When the step executes, the actions are applied in the order you wrote them and the flow continues from its single output (Next). A step can hold up to 20 actions.
Actions are permanent: a tag you add stays on the contact card, and a value you write to a field stays there. Nothing is rolled back when the flow ends.
Action types
- Add tag — Adds a tag to the contact. If the tag does not exist yet, it is created.
- Remove tag — Takes the tag off the contact.
- Set field — Writes a value into a field on the contact card. The value may contain placeholders.
- Clear field — Empties the field.
- Increase/decrease field — Increases the number in the field by the amount you give; a negative amount decreases it. If the value cannot be read as a number it counts as 0, so the first increase on an empty field produces 1. This is how you keep attempt counters, points and quantities.
Conversation and team
- Assign conversation — Assigns the conversation to a team member. Choosing "Unassign" leaves it unassigned.
- Conversation status — Sets the conversation to Open or Closed.
- Hand over to a human — The automation stops in this conversation and the flow ends; the conversation opens and the team takes over. You can assign it to someone at the same time.
- Notify the team — Drops a notification to your team in the panel. It never reaches the customer and is at most 300 characters.
Sequences
- Add to sequence — Enrols the contact in a sequence. If they are already in it, it is not restarted.
- Remove from sequence — Takes the contact out; pending steps are not sent.
For the concept itself, see Sequence.
- Hide comment — Hides the comment that started the flow; it stays visible only to its author. The same action can also unhide it.
- Delete comment — Deletes the comment that started the flow.
Several actions in one step
Listing actions in a single step keeps the flow readable. A typical arrangement:
- Add tag: interested
- Set field: source = october-campaign
- Assign conversation: sales agent
- Notify the team: "New warm lead has arrived."
All four sit in one box and run in order. Splitting the same work into four separate steps only lengthens the canvas for nothing.
⚠️ Note: the Hand over to a human action ends the flow. Actions written after it in the same step, and steps connected to that step's Next output, do not run. Always place the handover last.
Order matters
The actions in a step run in the order you wrote them and each sees the result of the previous one, so the ordering should not be accidental:
- Set the field first, then place the action that uses it.
- When changing a state, remove the old tag first and then add the new one; the other way round works too, but it reads worse in the logs.
- If you use Assign conversation together with Notify the team, assign first: the notification should reach a team that already knows who owns the conversation.
- Hand over to a human always goes last; it ends the flow.
The same rule applies to the action list in general rules.
Comment actions only make sense in flows that start from a comment. If the flow has no comment context — because it started from a keyword, for example — the step is skipped, the reason is written to the run log, and the flow carries on.
Hide comment is reversible: the comment is not removed, it simply stops being visible to anyone but its author. If you change your mind, use the same action with "unhide".
Delete comment is not reversible. It therefore needs a separate confirmation: without it, the flow cannot be published. The reason is to stop a delete action copied from a ready-made template from reaching production unnoticed.
Actions in general rules
The same actions are also used in general rules, which run outside any flow: "when this tag is added, do that". Only two actions are missing in rules — Hide comment and Delete comment. The rule engine carries no comment context, so those actions would have no comment to act on.
For the concept, see General rules.
A concrete example
An estate agency handles listing enquiries from Instagram like this:
- Someone writes "info" on a listing post and the flow starts.
- A Reply to comment step answers under the comment: "We've sent you a DM."
- An Action step adds the tag listing-enquiry, writes the post's ID into the listing_of_interest field, and assigns the conversation to the adviser on duty.
- A Collect information step asks for a phone number.
- Once the number arrives, a second Action step uses Notify the team to say "Phone number captured, please call" and then Hand over to a human to leave the conversation with the adviser.
Not one of these actions is visible to the customer; they only organise the office's internal work.
The limits of actions
- An action step carries at most 20 actions.
- Assign conversation only offers team members who can reach that account. Someone without access does not appear in the list; this matches the portfolio's account access rule.
- The Notify the team text is at most 300 characters and reaches only members who can see the inbox.
- Add to sequence and Remove from sequence do not run if your plan does not cover sequences: the step can be added, but the run stops there and the reason is logged.
- Comment actions can only be selected on Instagram accounts.
Common mistakes
- Putting the handover in the middle. Steps after Hand over to a human do not run; the flow ends there.
- Using Set field where Increase/decrease belongs. "Set field" replaces the value, it does not count. To track the number of attempts you need increase/decrease.
- Forgetting to remove a tag. With state tags (for example waiting → called), leaving the old one in place means the contact carries both and your filters go wrong.
- Putting a comment action in a flow that did not start from a comment. The step is silently skipped; the flow looks like it worked, but the comment is not hidden.
- Trying to publish a delete without confirming it. Publishing is blocked; you have to tick the confirmation.
- Mistaking "Notify the team" for a customer message. It never reaches the customer.
Actions are the invisible side of an automation: the customer never sees one, but they are what organise your team's work.