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Every 10 minutes

Reply to Instagram comments in your voice

Every new comment gets a short, friendly reply within about 10 minutes, and none is answered twice.

Runs
Every 10 minutes
Apps
Instagram
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
instagram_business_basic, instagram_business_manage_comments

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 10 minutes, reply to new comments on my Instagram posts with a short, warm answer in a casual tone. Skip comments I've already replied to and anything that's just emojis.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A food brand posts a recipe reel and gets 200 comments overnight. Most are small: a heart emoji, "looks great", "where can I buy this?". The community manager replies to a few over breakfast and the rest go unanswered. Instagram's algorithm rewards accounts that engage with their audience, and followers who ask a direct question and hear nothing are less likely to comment next time.

Every 10 minutes, ClickRuntime lists your recent Instagram media, collects the comments it has not handled yet, and has built-in AI write a reply in the voice you described, such as warm, brief and a little playful. It posts each reply under the comment and records the comment ID so none is answered twice.

It suits creators and small brands whose comment volume is higher than the time they have to answer.

What you get out of it

  • Engagement signals stay strong

    Replies keep a post's comment thread active, which helps the content stay visible. A thread where the brand answers within minutes tends to attract more comments than one that is left alone.

  • Followers feel noticed

    A creator who answers people by name builds a loyal audience. When replies go out within minutes, even on busy days, followers keep coming back instead of treating the account like a billboard.

  • Your voice, written once

    You describe tone, phrases to avoid and topics to leave alone one time. Every reply follows those instructions, so a slow week does not produce a flat tone and a busy week does not produce a rushed one.

  • Questions get answered quickly

    When someone asks where to buy or what size to order, a prompt answer can mean a sale. The reply arrives while the person is still looking at the post, not a day after they lost interest.

  • Time returns to making content

    Answering comments one at a time is repetitive work that eats the hour you would use to film or write. Delegating it frees time for work that grows the account rather than maintaining it.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 10 minutes ClickRuntime checks the comments on your 10 most recent Instagram posts.

  2. It skips your own comments, comments you have already replied to and any it has handled before, so no one gets answered twice.

  3. AI reads the post caption and the comment and writes a short, warm reply of 20 words or fewer. Emoji-only comments are left alone.

  4. The reply is posted under the comment from your account.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Instagram

What you get

RunsEvery 10 minutes
Reply to Instagram comments in your voicetoday, 9:00Succeeded
Instagram · Comment reply@sam.rivera: Love this colour! → So glad you like it, Sam! It's our favourite too

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Instagram steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
ai_auto_reply_to_comments.pyexample
import re
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, ai, report_fetched

IG = "https://graph.instagram.com/v21.0"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    token = credentials.connection("instagram", "work")
    me = http.get(f"{IG}/me", params={"fields": "username", "access_token": token}).json()["username"]
    done = set(state.get("done") or [])
    media = http.get(f"{IG}/me/media", params={"fields": "id,caption", "limit": 10, "access_token": token}).json()["data"]
    new = [(m, c) for m in media for c in http.get(f"{IG}/{m['id']}/comments", params={
        "fields": "id,text,username,replies{username}", "access_token": token}).json()["data"]
        if c["id"] not in done and c["username"] != me
        and not any(r["username"] == me for r in c.get("replies", {}).get("data", []))]
    report_fetched(len(new))
    if not new:
        return {"summary": "Nothing new"}
    for m, c in new:
        done.add(c["id"])
        if not re.search(r"\w", c["text"]):
            continue  # emoji-only
        reply = ai.generate(f"Post: {(m.get('caption') or '')[:300]}\nComment: {c['text'][:300]}\n"
                            "Write a short, warm, casual reply (max 20 words).", max_output_tokens=60).text.strip()
        http.post(f"{IG}/{c['id']}/replies", data={"message": reply, "access_token": token}).raise_for_status()
    state.set("done", list(done)[-2000:])
    return {"replied": len(new)}

FAQ

Common questions

Will it reply to every comment, including negative ones?
It replies to new comments according to the instructions you give. If you do not want automatic answers to complaints or sensitive topics, tell it to skip them or to flag them to you instead. Many people pair it with a moderation alert for that reason.
Does it comply with Instagram's rules on automation?
It uses the official Instagram API connected to a professional account, and replies are posted through that. Instagram sets limits on how much an account may post, so very high comment volumes can hit rate limits. Keep replies useful, not spam.
Can the replies mention a link or discount code?
They can if you tell it to, for example always pointing to the link in bio for purchase questions. Be careful with discount codes, since a public reply is visible to everyone. Give it exact wording for anything that must be precise.
What permissions does it need?
instagram_business_basic, instagram_business_manage_comments. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Reply to Instagram comments in your voice” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.