Comment automations

A comment automation watches a connected Instagram account. When someone comments on a post, or replies to a story, and the text matches the automation's keywords, PostZen sends that person a direct message and can post a public reply under their comment. Each trigger is recorded so you can see who got what and why.

This is the "comment the word LINK and I'll DM you" pattern, run from your API key instead of a chatbot subscription. It is built on Meta's private reply mechanism, which lets a business message a commenter once without the commenter having messaged first.

How it works

1. You create an automation for an account with POST /v1/comment-automations. It can be scoped to one post, or left account-wide.
2. Meta sends PostZen a webhook the moment a comment or story reply lands on that account. Nothing polls.
3. PostZen picks the automation that applies. A per-post automation always wins on its own post. Otherwise account-wide automations are tried oldest first, and the first one whose keywords match fires.
4. The DM goes out, immediately or after the delay you set. The public reply, if configured, follows the DM.
5. A log row records the outcome, and the automation's stats counters move.

Two Meta rules shape everything else on this page. A commenter can receive one private reply per comment, ever, and it has to be sent within seven days of the comment. Because a second reply to the same comment is refused by Meta, PostZen can retry a failed send without any risk of messaging someone twice.

Create an automation

curl -X POST https://api.postzen.dev/v1/comment-automations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTZEN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "accountId": "'"$ACCOUNT_ID"'",
    "name": "Launch link",
    "platformPostId": "17900000000000001",
    "keywords": ["link", "guide"],
    "matchMode": "word",
    "typoTolerance": true,
    "dmMessage": "Here is the guide you asked for 👇",
    "buttons": [{ "type": "url", "title": "Open the guide", "url": "https://example.com/guide" }],
    "commentReply": "Sent you a DM!",
    "commentReplyDelaySeconds": 30
  }'

The response is { message, automation }. The automation object carries every setting back, plus stats, createdAt, and updatedAt.

Scope

Only one active per-post automation may exist for a given post. Creating or activating a second returns 409 duplicatePostAutomation. Account-wide automations stack without limit, and they are skipped on any post that has its own automation.

Matching

Matching is case-insensitive and accent-insensitive, so Café matches cafe.

The message

Timing

dmDelaySeconds defers the send by up to 24 hours. The match and the dedupe still happen the instant the comment arrives, so a delayed automation cannot be triggered twice by the same person while it waits. commentReplyDelaySeconds defers the public reply, which never posts before the DM. Both default to zero.

Who gets messaged

• The account's own comments never trigger.
• A person receives one DM per automation. A second matching comment from the same person is logged as skipped with skipReason: "already_sent_to_contact".
• Story replies are matched the same way against automations with trigger: "story_reply". The DM is sent as a normal message, which Meta allows because the reply opened a 24-hour window.

Manage automations

# List, optionally filtered by profile or account
curl "https://api.postzen.dev/v1/comment-automations?accountId=$ACCOUNT_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTZEN_API_KEY"

# Get one, with its 20 most recent logs inline
curl "https://api.postzen.dev/v1/comment-automations/$AUTOMATION_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTZEN_API_KEY"

# Pause it
curl -X PATCH "https://api.postzen.dev/v1/comment-automations/$AUTOMATION_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTZEN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "isActive": false }'

# Delete it and its logs
curl -X DELETE "https://api.postzen.dev/v1/comment-automations/$AUTOMATION_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTZEN_API_KEY"

PATCH is a partial update. Send only the fields you want to change. Pass [] to clear keywords, excludeKeywords, buttons, or a variations list. The account cannot be changed after creation.

Logs

curl "https://api.postzen.dev/v1/comment-automations/$AUTOMATION_ID/logs?status=failed&limit=50&skip=0" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTZEN_API_KEY"

The response is { logs, pagination } with pagination.total, limit, skip, and hasMore. Each log carries the comment id, the commenter's id and username, the comment text, and the outcome.

The public reply has its own commentReplyStatus and commentReplyError. A failed public reply never changes the DM's status or the automation's counters.

stats.totalTriggered counts every match, including skips. totalSent and totalFailed count DM outcomes only.

Limits

Not supported yet

Facebook Page comments, product card templates, follower-only audiences and the follow gate, matching keywords inside inbound DMs, and click tracking are accepted by Zernio's API but return 400 unsupported here. Send linkTracking: false or omit it.

Related

• Comment automations API reference
• Inbox for reading and replying to comments and DMs by hand
• Instagram platform guide