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The automation template library gives you ready-made flows — a welcome bot, a lead qualifier, an abandoned-cart nudge — that you install in one click and then edit. These are not WhatsApp message templates. A WhatsApp message template is a single message Meta has to approve before you can send it outside the 24-hour window; see Message templates for those. An automation template is a whole flow, needs no approval, and belongs to DMLY rather than Meta.

You only see templates your channel supports

The picker is scoped to the active channel’s platform. The library ships more than 100 templates, but a WhatsApp channel never shows the Instagram-only ones, and vice versa — so the list you see is a subset, and it changes when you switch channels. Around half the library is cross-platform and appears everywhere; the rest is specific to WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram or SMS.
If a template you were told about isn’t in the list, switch to the channel it was built for and look again.

Install a template

1

Create a new automation

Go to Automations and create one. The templates picker opens automatically. If you’d rather not use a template, Start from scratch asks How do you want to build it? and lets you pick Quick automation or Flow builder.
2

Find one

Templates are split into Recommended and the rest. You can filter by goal — Capture leads, Support customers, Book appointments, Sell products, Recover & grow revenue, Grow your followers, Engage your audience, Drive traffic — by builder, under By builder (Quick automations or Flow builder), or by trigger and industry, or just search by name.
3

Preview it

Selecting a card opens a preview so you can see what the flow does before you commit.
4

Install

What happens next depends on the template’s builder — the card footer says which one it is. A Flow builder template creates a Draft automation seeded with the template’s flow and drops you straight onto the builder canvas. A Quick automation template opens a prefilled form instead; nothing is created until you save it.
5

Edit, then turn it on

On the canvas, change the wording, the tags, the branches — it’s an ordinary flow now. In the quick form, adjust the trigger and the reply. Either way it starts as a Draft, and nothing runs until you turn it on.
Installing sets the trigger to the real one for your channel. A template authored as a generic “message received” becomes User sends a message on the channel you installed it to, so the trigger step reads correctly from the start.

Badges on a template card

Some templates need something else in place before they can work. The card tells you which:
  • Setup required (amber) — an integration isn’t connected yet. You can still install it, finish the setup, then publish.
  • Unavailable — your channel can’t do what the template needs, so it can’t be installed.
A chip names what the template needs: Requires store, Requires payment, Requires calendar, Requires AI, Requires WA template or Requires WA Flow. The chip is always shown — the badge is what tells you whether the thing is actually missing.

AI templates

Four templates are built around an AI Reply step. All four work on every channel, all four start on the channel’s message trigger, and each one arrives with a prompt and a set of tools already switched on:

AI Customer Service bot

Answers questions, takes notes on the contact, tags them, and hands over to a human when asked.

AI Lead Qualification bot

Qualifies inbound leads, captures their details and phone number, tags hot leads, moves the CRM stage, and hands strong prospects to a human.

AI Appointment Booking bot

Lists services and staff, checks available times, and books, reschedules or cancels appointments.

AI Class Booking bot

Lists upcoming classes, books a place, and shows or cancels existing bookings.
All four answer every inbound message, not just the first one of a conversation. These are a starting point, not a finished assistant. Open the AI step and rewrite the System prompt / instructions for your business before you publish — the prompt uses {{business_name}}, which resolves to your workspace name, but it knows nothing else about what you sell.
Installing a template that contains an AI step needs the AI Agent on your plan. If it isn’t included you’ll see: “This automation uses an AI step, which your plan does not include. Upgrade your plan to use it, or remove the AI step.” You also need an AI provider connected under Integrations — the step does nothing without one.

Templates worth knowing about

Lead Qualification Flow asks interest, budget and timeline, saves each answer to a custom field, then branches: urgent answers route to Sales, everyone else gets a follow-up message. It’s deterministic — no AI provider needed. See Lead qualification.
Ask for phone number when missing (WhatsApp) checks whether the contact has a phone on file, asks for it only if they don’t, thanks them, and saves it to the contact. See Request phone number.
Welcome & Qualify New Chats greets a new chat and branches on tapped buttons. It ships scoped to WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

What to do next

Flow builder

Edit the flow you just installed.

Triggers

Change what starts it.

Common mistakes

The errors that block publish.

Automation overview

How automations fit together.