Getting started / Article

Create and enable a Manychat automation

Connect a published prompt to the right account, map response fields, and choose a reply flow.

Before you start

For this Manychat path, connect the intended account and OpenAI key, then publish the prompt you want to run. You also need the Manychat response fields and a Responses flow that sends their values to the customer. Install the available Starter Template in the intended account if your setup uses it, following its instructions.

An automation combines these pieces. Its name helps your team identify it, while its Automation ID identifies it in the Manychat request flow. Do not use a prompt slug or a Manychat flow ID in place of that Automation ID.

Configure the automation

In Guided setup, open the automation step after selecting the account, key, and published prompt. Review the selections shown. Use Change if any selection belongs to a different customer or workspace.
Select an existing automation only if you intend to edit it. Otherwise enter a descriptive Automation name and choose Create automation. Creating the record does not finish the response configuration.
In Response fields and delivery, inspect the fields loaded from the published prompt. For a single text response, map the response to the appropriate text field. For JSON output, review each response path and its destination field type.
Use Refresh fields if you recently installed a template or changed fields in Manychat. Use Reload published response fields if the prompt's published output changed. Review the resulting destinations; do not assume similarly named fields have compatible types.
Select the Responses flow from the correct account. Review reply preferences, including any processing delay. A delay measured from the last message restarts when another message arrives, so allow for that when testing.
Choose Save and enable automation once all required destinations and the flow are set. Copy the Automation ID for your Manychat request flow, then continue to connect and test the flows.

Check the result

SiloBox should confirm that the automation is saved and enabled. Reopen its settings to confirm the intended prompt, account, mappings, and flow. Then send a message through the real channel and check both Chats and the customer's channel. An enabled switch does not prove successful delivery.

If you get stuck

If the prompt is missing, publish it and check whether its API access is allowed. If saving remains unavailable, look for an unmapped response field or missing Responses flow. If a concurrent-change message appears, reload and review the latest settings before saving again. For failures after enabling, inspect the conversation before changing multiple settings at once.

Media, personalization, and live changes

Under File processing, review Process audio messages and Process images and PDFs separately. Send a file URL as the entire message. Audio, including .ogg, is transcribed; images and PDFs are attached for processing. Each processed file adds two credits. If a type is unchecked, its links are sent to AI as plain text without the extra processing charge. These are automation preferences; check the saved automation summary before a live test.

Optional personalization lets you select contact facts that the AI can use. Select only relevant facts and check the source values. Include current date and time uses the configured timezone; confirm it when answers depend on business hours or dates.

The automation list also offers API response delivery for integrations that consume returned text or JSON instead of a Manychat reply flow. Follow that mode's integration instructions; do not expect it to send a Manychat message.

Saving changes to an existing automation changes its saved configuration for subsequent work. Review account, prompt, key, response delivery, and routing before saving. Use Disable when you intend to stop the automation, and separately check any work already in progress. Pausing AI in one chat is a conversation-level control, not a replacement for disabling an automation or changing Manychat routes.