Common mistakes

Most automation support tickets come from a short list of causes. This page covers what actually goes wrong, in the order it wastes the most time — starting with the bot that looks correct and never replies.

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The bot never replies

The flow is published, the trigger looks right, and nothing happens. There are four reasons a flow refuses to start for a contact, and two of them leave no trace in the Inbox. Abandoned runs are cleared automatically — a run whose worker died mid-step is reaped rather than blocking that contact forever. If a contact seems stuck, wait rather than rebuilding the flow. More in Automation not triggering.

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The customer gets two replies

Two bots on one channel. Publish is blocked when another active automation on the same channel answers the same trigger. If both reply to everything, you get: “…is already active on this channel and replies to every message, so both would respond. Give one a specific keyword, or pause the other before publishing.” If they merely share a keyword, the message names the keyword and the other automation. Fix it by giving one a specific keyword, or by pausing the other — not by publishing again. A workspace notification already covers the event. Automations and workspace notifications are separate systems and neither knows what the other sent. Build a flow on appointment_booked, appointment_rescheduled, appointment_cancelled, invoice_sent, payment_succeeded, payment_failed or subscription_payment_failed while the matching notification is switched on, and the client gets both. The builder warns you on the trigger step: “A workspace notification already fires on this event — clients may receive a duplicate. Review Notification settings.” This is a warning, not a block — publish succeeds and the duplicates go out. Turn one of the two off.

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Publish is blocked

The builder shows an amber badge on any step that needs work, and a Needs attention list inside the step. Some of those are advice; the ones below stop publish.

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Every branch needs its own path

A branching step routes to a named output, and an output with nothing attached is a dead end. Three things block publish over an unconnected output, and both sides are required — not just the one you expect to happen:

• Condition — both TRUE and FALSE
• Find Order — both FOUND and NOT FOUND
• Reply buttons and quick replies on a message step — each one, individually

Randomizer is checked on its shape rather than its wiring: publish requires 2 to 5 branches with weights totalling exactly 100%, but it does not check that each branch leads anywhere. Buttons Message, List Message, Check Stock and CSAT Survey flag their unconnected outputs on the step, but that is advice — it does not block publish. A Buttons Message with a dead button and a List Message with dead rows both publish. On CSAT Survey the builder only asks you to connect at least one score; unconnected scores never stop publish. What publish does enforce on the first two is Meta’s size limits: 1–3 buttons with titles of 20 characters or less, and 1–10 rows. Advisory or not, a dead output is still a dead end for the contact who picks it.

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One output connects to one step

Each output handle allows exactly one outgoing connection. To send a contact down several paths you use several named outputs — not several lines out of the same one. Dragging a second line from an output that already has one produces “Step … has 2 connections from one output (out) — each output can connect to only one next step. Remove the extra connection(s).” The same rule rejects an imported flow file, so a flow that was hand-edited outside DMLY will refuse to load.

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No orphan steps

Every step except the trigger needs an incoming connection. A step you dragged onto the canvas and never wired up blocks publish with “Node … is not connected to the flow.” Notes are exempt from this check — they are annotations and are never validated.

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The picks you left blank

A flow installed from a template ships with deliberate placeholders. Publish refuses until you fill them: a Send Template step with no template, a Send Store Product step with no product, a Start Another Flow step with no flow selected, and a CTA URL step with no link.

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WhatsApp traps

Buttons on a text message. Covered above — the Buttons Message step is the WhatsApp one. Starting a store-triggered flow with a normal message. A contact who abandoned a cart yesterday is outside WhatsApp’s 24-hour window, so an ordinary send silently cannot reach them. The builder flags it: “Store-triggered contacts are usually outside the 24h window — start with a WhatsApp Template (or a Checkout Link with a template fallback).” Make the first step after a store_ trigger a Send Template step, or a Checkout Link with a template selected as its fallback. See Message templates. Product events with no recipient. store_product_back_in_stock and store_inventory_low are not about one person, so there is nobody to message until you set the notify contacts tagged tag on the trigger. Meta’s size limits, which are hard limits. A Buttons Message needs 1–3 buttons with titles of 20 characters or less. A List Message needs 1–10 rows across at most 10 sections; row titles cap at 24 characters and descriptions at 72. Body text caps at 1024, headers at 60, footers at 60. Exceeding them is not a style problem — WhatsApp rejects the send. Empty template variables. A Send Template step with a blank variable is flagged — Variable {{1}} is empty. — for each one. Fill every one.

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Facebook and Instagram traps

• Instagram does not support call or webview buttons. They exist in the picker on Messenger. Instagram gets quick replies and Open URL only.
• More than 3 buttons or 13 quick replies breaches Meta’s limits and is flagged on the step.
• A URL button with no valid link fails at send time, not at build time — the builder catches it first if you let it.

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AI steps

The AI Reply step is built so a flow never stalls on it. That is usually what you want, and it is also why a broken AI step is easy to miss — everything looks fine, the contact just gets nothing useful.

What happens when the AI step goes wrong

• No provider connected — the step is skipped and a system note appears in the conversation: ”✨ AI step skipped — no AI provider is connected.” The flow continues.
• Your plan does not include the AI Agent — same shape: ”✨ AI step skipped — your plan does not include the AI Agent.” Publish is also blocked up front with “This automation uses an AI step, which your plan does not include.” See Plans.
• An error or an empty reply — the step’s Fallback message (on error / empty reply) is sent instead. Write a real one. The default is “Sorry, I couldn’t process that just now — a team member will follow up shortly.”
• Too many AI calls in one conversation — an AI step with more flow after it is capped at three calls per run, then skipped: ”✨ AI step skipped — per-conversation AI limit reached.” If you hit that, the flow is looping back to the step. An AI step at the end of a path — its out output leading to an End step, a note, or nothing, which is how a customer-service bot is normally built — is treated as a conversation instead and capped at 40 replies. Reaching that cap moves the flow past the step quietly, with no system note.

Document search is on by default and does nothing. A new AI Reply step has Document search (File Search) enabled, but the tool is dropped entirely unless you select at least one vector store. Create a store on the provider’s Integration page first — the step tells you so: “No vector stores yet — create one on the provider’s Integration page (Vector stores tab).” See the knowledge base. Reasoning effort only applies to OpenAI. The card is hidden for Claude, Gemini and DeepSeek because none of them support it — including DeepSeek’s deepseek-reasoner model. Setting it elsewhere has no effect. Document search is not available on every provider. Claude and DeepSeek have no file search, so the step says so and there is no Vector stores tab on their Integration page. An empty prompt is flagged but not fatal. The step warns “AI prompt is empty.” At runtime it falls back to the built-in Customer Service prompt, so an AI step never runs promptless — but it also will not do what you meant. {{business_name}} in a prompt resolves to your workspace name.

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Before you publish