The moment it happens

Get every Instantly reply in Slack

Each new reply is posted with the first lines of the message, so nothing waits unread.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Instantly
AI: Not needed
Access: webhooks scope

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: post each new Instantly reply to #replies in Slack with the sender, the campaign and the first three lines of their message.

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 sales rep sends a few hundred cold emails a day through Instantly and checks the inbox in the morning and again after lunch. A prospect replies at 10:05 asking for pricing before a budget meeting at noon, and the rep sees it at 1:30. The prospect picked a competitor who answered at 10:20. Replies from outreach are more time-sensitive than almost any other email, yet they are handled like ordinary mail.

Whenever a reply arrives, Instantly sends an event, and ClickRuntime posts it straight away so you see who replied and what they wrote. Every reply, whether positive, negative or a request to be removed, appears in one place the moment it happens.

This works best for teams that want visibility over all replies, with no filtering, and plan to sort them by hand.

What you get out of it

Nothing falls through the cracks
Every reply is posted, so a short or unusual message is not lost among automated mail. You can be certain that each person who wrote back has been seen by a human.
Pricing questions are answered while live
Prospects who ask for a quote are often at a decision point. Seeing the message within moments gives you a chance to respond before a competitor does. That is a better outcome than discovering the question after the meeting has already happened and the budget is allocated.
Unsubscribe requests are honored quickly
People who reply asking to be removed need to be taken off lists soon, both for courtesy and for compliance. Seeing those replies right away makes it easy to act the same day.
Deliverability problems appear sooner
A flood of replies such as out-of-office notices, spam complaints or angry responses suggests an issue with your list or message. Seeing replies in real time lets you pause a campaign before damage grows.
The team shares the workload
Because replies appear in a shared space, colleagues can claim them, hand them off, or discuss how to answer. That is difficult when replies are locked inside one person's inbox.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When a lead replies to one of your Instantly campaigns, Instantly tells ClickRuntime straight away.
ClickRuntime takes the lead's email, the campaign name and the first three lines of the reply.
It posts them to #replies in Slack, so every reply gets seen even if nobody is watching the Instantly inbox.

Before it runs live

Connect Instantly
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Get every Instantly reply in Slackjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #repliesReply from jo@acme.com on Agency outbound v2 > Not right now, but check back in January.

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
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Instantly 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.

reply_received_alert.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, notify

@on_event
def handle(event):
    e = event.json or {}
    if e.get("event_type") != "reply_received":
        return {"posted": False}
    lines = "\n".join((e.get("reply_text") or "").strip().splitlines()[:3])
    notify.slack(f"Reply from {e.get('lead_email')} on {e.get('campaign_name')}\n> {lines}", channel="#replies")
    return {"posted": True}

FAQ

Common questions

How is this different from the interested lead alert?

This alert posts every reply, whatever its tone. The interested lead alert posts only leads labelled interested, so it is quieter. Pick this one when you want to see everything and the other when you only want the warm ones.

Can I stop out-of-office replies from appearing?

Instantly sends reply events for incoming messages, and automatic responses can be among them. You can ask to skip messages whose text matches phrases such as out of office or automatic reply, so that only human responses are posted.

Does it work if I run many campaigns at once?

Yes. The event covers replies across your campaigns, and each post includes the campaign name, so you can tell them apart. If you want one channel per client or campaign, you can route them separately.

What permissions does it need?

webhooks scope. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

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.

The moment it happens