Every 15–60 minutes

Reply to new comments on your blog

Approved comments get a short, polite reply written for that comment and posted under your name.

Runs: Every 15–60 minutes
Apps: WordPress
AI: Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access: read+write (moderate_comments for unapproved)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 30 minutes, check for new approved comments on my WordPress site, write a short, friendly reply to each, and post it as a reply from me.

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

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

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

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A blog or documentation site that gets a steady trickle of comments ends up with questions nobody answers. A reader asks whether a tutorial works with the latest WordPress version, a week passes, and the comment sits there with no reply. Visitors reading it later conclude the site is abandoned, and the person who asked never comes back.

On a polling schedule, comments posted since the last check are listed. For each one, ClickRuntime's built-in AI drafts a short, polite reply, and the automation posts it as a child reply under the original comment using WordPress's parent comment field, so it appears threaded the way a human reply would.

It is most useful for sites where most comments are simple thank-yous or basic how-to questions, and where the owner would rather reply quickly than perfectly.

What you get out of it

Questions get an answer same day
A reader who asks something while the post is open on screen receives a response within the polling window, which is far more likely to bring them back than a reply three days later.
Threaded, not scattered
Replies attach to the original comment, so the conversation reads naturally on the post and notification emails from WordPress go to the commenter who asked. That also means the person who asked gets WordPress's own reply notification, with the answer in context.
Active comments help engagement
A section where the author visibly responds encourages more comments, which gives search engines fresh text on the page and gives you ideas for follow-up posts. New visitors judge a blog by whether the owner is present, and a recent reply proves it.
You stay out of low-value replies
Thank-you comments and simple clarifications do not need your time. You can save your attention for the substantive disagreements and questions that actually need your expertise. The AI handles the easy volume so your own replies stay personal where it counts.
Nothing is answered twice
The last-checked point is stored, so a comment already replied to is not picked up again on the next run, and your thread does not fill with duplicate responses. That keeps the comment section tidy and spares readers from reading the same answer twice.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every 15 to 60 minutes, ClickRuntime checks WordPress for approved comments since its last check.
AI reads each comment and the post it's on, and writes a short, polite reply.
The reply is posted under your name, directly beneath the comment.

Before it runs live

Connect WordPress

What you get

RunsEvery 15–60 minutes

Reply to new comments on your blogtoday, 9:00Succeeded

WordPress · Comment replyThanks Jamie! Yes, the template works for teams too. Just duplicate the checklist per client.

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 WordPress 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_replies_to_new_comments.pyexample

import re
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, ai, report_fetched

SITE = "https://blog.example.com"
MY_USER_ID = 1

def wp(method, path, **kw):
    resp = http.request(method, f"{SITE}/wp-json/wp/v2/{path}", **kw,
                        auth=("admin", credentials.secret("WP_APP_PASSWORD")))
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    last_id = state.get("last_id") or 0
    comments = [c for c in wp("GET", "comments", params={"status": "approve", "per_page": 50, "orderby": "id", "order": "asc"})
                if c["id"] > last_id and c["author"] != MY_USER_ID]
    report_fetched(len(comments))
    if not comments:
        return {"summary": "Nothing new"}
    for c in comments:
        text = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", "", c["content"]["rendered"])[:1500]
        reply = ai.generate(text, max_output_tokens=150,
                            system="Write a short, friendly reply from the blog author. No sign-off.").text
        wp("POST", "comments", json={"post": c["post"], "parent": c["id"], "content": reply})
    state.set("last_id", comments[-1]["id"])
    return {"replied": len(comments)}

FAQ

Common questions

Can it avoid replying to spam comments?

Reply drafting happens on the comments WordPress returns, so held or spam-marked comments are normally not part of it. You can also tell your AI assistant to skip comments with links or very short text before a reply is posted.

Does the reply appear under my name?

The reply is created through the WordPress account whose credentials are saved as secrets, so it shows that user's display name. Many people create a dedicated Site Team user so replies are clearly labelled and separate from personal posts.

Will it reply to replies it wrote itself?

The run looks only at comments newer than the stored last check, and it can be set to ignore comments from its own user. That prevents the loop where each automated answer would trigger another one.

What permissions does it need?

read+write (moderate_comments for unapproved). 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.

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