Overview Of Statusbrew Rule Engine

Statusbrew's Rule Engine automatically takes action on incoming Engage conversations, such as hiding comments, assigning conversations or sending alerts, based on conditions you set.

Rules run in real time as conversations come in, which helps you keep a clean and professional social presence. Ready-to-use rule templates cover the most common moderation and workflow needs, so you don't have to start from scratch. Pick a template, review its pre-filled conditions and actions, then add your own keywords, tweak filters or adjust actions.

Who Can Do This?

The Rule Engine is available on Lite and above plans. See full pricing details.

Some filters, such as Sentiment, Language, Contact Conversations and Contact Messages (Time Window), are available on Premium and above plans only.

Rule limits: Lite 25, Standard 100, Premium 500 and Enterprise 2,000 rules per organization, with up to 300 rules in each space. This limit is shared: Engage, Publish and Notification rules all count toward the same total.

Primary Owners, Owners and Admins can create, edit and pause rules.

What Can Rules Do In Statusbrew?

With the Rule Engine you can automate these actions:

Send a private message to follow up (Facebook and Instagram only)
Hide, unhide or delete comments based on conditions such as keywords or sentiment
Assign conversations to the right team member or agent
Close conversations after resolving inquiries
Add watchers to keep stakeholders informed
Move conversations to a specific Team Inbox
Mark conversations as priority to flag urgent cases
Add or remove tags to categorize conversations
Trigger internal Slack or Microsoft Teams alerts
Send notifications within Statusbrew
Send emails to teammates or external users when conditions are met
Update custom fields based on rule logic

You also control when a rule runs. Use Add hours to limit it to set days and times each week, or Active period to run it only between a start and end date, for example during a campaign or sale. Both are under Additional options in the rule editor (see Additional Options below).

A rule that sends a private message on a message or comment only runs when the user writes from their personal profile. Comments made through a Facebook Page don't trigger a private reply.

How Do I Find The Rule Engine?

Go to Rule Engine from the Statusbrew dashboard.

The rules list has two tabs: Active rules and Paused rules. Click Add new rule to pick a template or click Create Manually to build a rule from scratch.

Rule Engine Templates

Before you build a rule from scratch, check whether a template covers your use case. Templates come pre-filled with filters and actions, so you can start in seconds and customize as needed.

Moderation

Auto Hide Negative Comments: Hides negative audience comments to keep your comment section free from spam, hate and troll comments.
Auto Hide Comments with Links: Hides comments that contain external links to reduce spam or phishing.
Auto Hide All Obscene/Offensive Comments (English Language): Hides comments containing obscene or offensive English words.
Auto Hide All Obscene/Offensive Comments (Spanish Language): Hides comments containing obscene or offensive Spanish words.
Auto Hide All Obscene/Offensive Comments (French Language): Hides comments containing obscene or offensive French words.
Auto Hide All Obscene/Offensive Comments (Hindi Language): Hides comments containing obscene or offensive Hindi words.
Auto Hide/Close All "Page Getting Disabled" Conversations: Protects against the widespread "Page Disabled" phishing scams.
Auto Hide All Comments w/ Gambling, Crypto Scam + Porn Links: Removes comments with links to gambling, crypto scam or porn sites.
Auto Hide All Comments w/ Bad/Dirty Emojis: Hides comments with sexual, violent or inappropriate emojis.
Auto-Hide Negative Comments on Weekends: Hides negative audience comments on weekends while your team is offline.
Auto-Close Conversations With Only Mentions & No Text: Closes conversations that contain only mentions (tags) and no text.
Auto-Close Conversations With Attachments: Closes conversations that contain attachments, clearing low-value or non-actionable items from the inbox.
Auto Prioritize Negative Reviews: Flags reviews rated 3 stars and below so your team can act quickly.

Categorization

Auto Prioritize Important Conversations (For eCommerce): Marks conversations with buying or service intent (orders, shipping, refunds, returns, payments) as priority.
Auto Prioritize Important Conversations (For Healthcare): Marks healthcare conversations (side effects, reports, insurance, emergencies) as priority so your team can respond immediately.

Understanding A Rule In Statusbrew

Every rule is built from four parts: data sources, trigger type, filters and actions.

Data Sources

The data source decides where the rule applies. You must select at least one social profile; you can't create a rule without one.

You can choose:

Individual social profiles
Profile groups

Profile groups are useful for teams managing several brands, regions or clients, because they keep both rules and profiles organized.

Trigger Type

Every rule starts with a trigger, the event that activates it. For Engage conversations, the only trigger type is Message received. This trigger fires on every incoming message on the selected profiles, including follow-up messages in a conversation a teammate is already handling. Rules don't check whether a teammate has replied or the conversation is assigned.

Keyword Matching (Optional)

Use keyword matching to find and highlight words, phrases or message intent in incoming conversations. Click Add keyword set, name the set and pick the color used to highlight matched content in Engage.

Describe intent: Let AI match incoming messages by meaning, even when customers use different words. Statusbrew highlights the phrases that match the intent. Leave it empty to match on keywords only.

Refine matching (optional): Narrow the keyword set with Keywords and Exclude keywords.

Keywords: Words or phrases to match, separated by commas or line breaks. Choose Contains to match the keyword inside other words (bot matches robot, chatbot and bots) or Exact match to match the whole word only (bot matches bot, not chatbot or robots). You can use keywords with or without Describe intent.
Exclude keywords: Skip messages containing these words or phrases. Exclusions only apply to messages that already matched through Describe intent or Keywords, so set those first.

When a keyword set uses Describe intent and Keywords together, a message has to match both. Keep the keyword list broad, or use Describe intent on its own. Describe intent recognizes spam such as gambling or casino comments in any language, even when they're written in special fonts, swap letters for symbols or use new site names.

Describe intent uses AI credits; Keywords don't. Exact match matches a whole word inside a message, not a message that is only that word. To flag one-word messages such as "first" without AI credits, add the word and its variants as Keywords and add common words such as of, all, but, the and you as Exclude keywords, so longer sentences are skipped. This is an approximation, so add more excluded words as you spot misses.

Filters

Filters set the conditions under which the rule runs, based on message content, type, source, sentiment and more. Click Add condition to see every filter, grouped by what it matches.

Conversation

Conversation Type: The message type, like Instagram Comment, Facebook Ad Comment or X DM. Required for hide and delete rules.
Team Inbox: The Team Inbox the conversation belongs to.

Message

Message Content: Keywords or phrases in the incoming message.
Message has attachments: Whether the message includes an attachment.
Message Links Count: How many links the message contains.
Message Mentions Count: How many accounts the message mentions.
Story Mention: Whether the conversation is a Story mention. Toggle True.
Story Reply: Whether the conversation is a reply to your Story. Toggle True.
Sentiment: Positive, Negative, Neutral or Mixed.
Language: The detected language of the message.
Star Rating: The rating on a review.

Post (matches the post the conversation came from, not the incoming message)

Post Text: Keywords in the post's text. Select Exact match to match the whole keyword.
Post Link: Keywords in the links inside the post. Select Exact match to match the whole URL.
Post Tag: Tags applied to the post.

Contact

Contact Tag: Tags applied to the contact. Use it to auto-prioritize VIP or Premium customers.
Contact Name: Keywords matching the contact's name, separated by commas or line breaks, or select Exact match.
Contact Verified (X only): Whether the contact is a verified X account.
Contact Followers (X only): The contact's follower count on X.
Contact First Seen (Days Ago): How many days ago the contact was first seen.
Contact Conversations: How many conversations you've had with the contact.
Contact Messages (Time Window): How many messages the contact sent within a time window. Enter a number, then pick the window from the dropdown. The filter shows a plain-English summary as you build it, for example, "Contact Messages (Time Window) is exactly 1 in the last 1 hour." Use it to catch spam bursts from a single contact. The count includes the message that triggered the rule, so the lowest value is 1. To act only on a contact's first message in a while, use Is (=) 1 with the window you want.

UTM (matches conversations on posts whose links carry UTM parameters)

UTM Campaign, UTM Source, UTM Medium, UTM Content, UTM Term

For the full list with examples, see Filters in Rule Engine.

How Do AND And OR Filters Work?

AND: Every condition must be met for the rule to run.
OR: The rule runs if any one condition is met.

You can switch between AND and OR when you add several filters, and inside a filter group. After your first filter group, click Add condition to add another. AND is the default.

When you select several values in one filter, for example several conversation types (Instagram Message, Instagram Mention, Instagram Media Tagged), those values use OR.

For example, a rule with:

Conversation Type: Instagram Message, Instagram Mention, Instagram Media Tagged
Sentiment: Positive

runs when the message is any of those conversation types AND the sentiment is positive.

How Do I Nest Filters In A Group?

Nest filters inside a single condition group when grouped conditions must be evaluated together. For example:

If (Message Content is "offer" OR Message Links Count is 1)
AND (Conversation Type is Instagram DM)
Then perform the action(s)

Here, either of the first two conditions must be true, along with the third, for the rule to run.

To add a nested filter:

Click Add (Add filter to this group) beside the filter.
Add the filter.
Set the logic (AND or OR).

Actions

Actions are what the rule does when its conditions are met. You can add one or more actions, and they run together.

To move matching conversations to a Team Inbox, click Add a new action → CONVERSATION ACTIONS → Move to Team Inbox, pick the inbox and click Add. The checkbox "Don't apply this action if the message is already in a Team Inbox." is selected by default. If no Team Inbox has the name you type, pick the + option with that name to create the Team Inbox from the rule.

For every action and where it works, see Actions in Rule Engine.

Additional Options

Open Additional options at the bottom of the rule editor for these settings.

Stop execution of following rules: Select it so no rules below this one run on a conversation this rule applies to.

Add hours: Schedule the rule to act only at certain times. Pick a day and a time range, for example, Monday from 09:00 to 17:00. Click Add times to add more days and time blocks.

Time zone: Set the time zone the rule follows, so it matches your local business hours or regional team.

If you don't set any hours, the rule runs 24/7.

How Do I Set A Start And End Time For A Rule?

Use Active period to limit a rule to a fixed window, such as a campaign or a holiday sale. The rule stays active, but it only acts between the start and end time, in the rule's Time zone.

Go to Rule Engine and edit a rule, or click Add new rule → Create Manually.
Open Additional options at the bottom of the rule editor.
Under Active period, click Add start time, Add end time, or both.
Under Starts (or Ends), set the Date, Hour, Minute and AM/PM.
Click Save.

You can set a start time only, an end time only, or both. To remove one, click the ✕ next to it.

In the rules list, a rule that hasn't reached its start time shows Upcoming in the Status column and stays under Active rules. Hover over Upcoming to see when it starts.

FAQs

Do Rules Apply To Comments And Messages Posted Before The Rule Was Created?

No. Rules apply only to incoming conversations from the moment the rule is created and active. They don't process posts, comments or messages that existed before the rule was set up.

To clean up spam that arrived before the rule, hide those comments manually in Engage with bulk select. Rules, including hide rules, also work during the free trial.

Why Did My New Rule Show Results From Several Days Ago?

This is normal. When you first create a rule, there can be a delay of up to 24 to 48 hours while the system processes recently synced conversations. Some older conversations synced around the time the rule went live can show up in results. This isn't a lookback or backfill: it's the system catching up on recently synced data. It isn't related to your plan or trial status.

What Does Message Received Mean In Rule Engine?

Message received fires on every incoming message, including follow-up messages in a conversation a teammate is already handling. Rules don't check whether a teammate has replied or the conversation is assigned. It isn't limited to direct messages. It applies to any supported conversation type that lands in Engage. To run a rule only on one type, such as comments, reviews or DMs, add Filters → Conversation Type.

How Do I Stop A Rule From Replying While A Teammate Is Chatting?

Rules can't yet check whether a teammate has replied. You have two options, and you can combine them:

Reply only to a contact's first message in a while: Add the filter Contact Messages (Time Window) set to Is (=) 1 in the last 1 hour (or 6 hours or 1 day). The rule then acts only on a customer's first message in that window and skips follow-ups during an active chat.
Let your team switch the rule off for a conversation: Create a conversation checkbox custom field such as "Handled by agent". Reps tick it when they take over, and the rule has the filter Handled by agent is unchecked.

Don't use Is (=) 0. The count includes the message that triggered the rule, so that condition never matches and the rule stops running. Contact Messages (Time Window) and custom fields are available on Premium and above plans.

My Rule Is Not Working. What Should I Do?

Rules run automatically on new incoming messages, but a few common issues stop them silently. Work through this list.

The rule is paused: Go to Rule Engine and check the Paused rules tab. Paused rules sit there, not under Active rules, with the status Archived. To turn one back on, click More (three dots) → Edit rule → Activate rule.
The profile is disconnected: Rules tied to a disconnected profile stop working without any error on the rule. Go to Settings → Profiles, look for red error indicators and re-authenticate any profile that needs it.
The data sources and filters don't match: For example, a rule on a Facebook profile with Conversation Type = X Messages never runs.
The filters are too strict: This is the most common cause. The Conversation Type filter is required for hide and delete actions. With AND, every condition must be true at once, so overly strict conditions never match.
A rule above it stops execution: Rules run top to bottom. If a rule above yours has Stop execution of following rules selected and matches first, the rules below it don't run.
The rule has a schedule or an active period: The rule only acts inside that window. Open the rule and check Add hours and Active period under Additional options. A rule showing Upcoming hasn't reached its start time yet.
The action isn't supported for that conversation type: LinkedIn Comments can be deleted but not hidden. TikTok Comments can be hidden but not deleted. Private replies only work on Facebook and Instagram.
The rule only applies to new messages: Rules don't process conversations that were already in your inbox before the rule was created.
The social network's API has a temporary issue: Delays or outages on Facebook, Instagram or other networks can make rules run unexpectedly. If your setup looks right, wait a while and check again.

How Can I Automatically Tag Comments From Specific Users Or Contacts?

Tag the contact first, then create a rule that uses that contact tag to tag their future comments.

Create a contact tag, for example, Spammer or Repeat Buyer, and apply it to the user from their conversation window.

Create a rule that adds a tag whenever that tagged contact comments again.

You can describe the rule to the Rule Engine's AI in plain language, for example: "For the Instagram profile Pins N Threads, when a new Instagram comment is received from a user tagged Spammer, hide that Instagram comment and add the tag Spam."

Or build it manually:

Go to Rule Engine → Add new rule → Create Manually.
Enter a name and select the data source.
Set Trigger type to Message received.
Under Filters, add Conversation Type = Comment and the relevant Contact Tag.
Under Actions, choose Add tags and select the tag to apply.
Click Submit to activate the rule.

From then on, every comment from a contact with that tag is tagged automatically.

Can I Make A Rule Run Only During A Campaign?

Yes. Open the rule, go to Additional options → Active period and set a start time and an end time that match your campaign. The rule only acts between those times, in the rule's time zone, so you don't have to remember to pause it when the campaign ends.

Active period is different from Add hours. Add hours sets the days of the week and times the rule acts, for example, Monday from 09:00 to 17:00. Active period sets one start date and time and one end date and time. Both sit under Additional options in the rule editor.

Can A Rule Hide Repeated Comments From The Same User?

Yes. Add the Contact Messages (Time Window) filter and set how many messages one contact can send in a time window, for example 3 in the last 5 minutes, then add the Hide comment action. No filter compares the text of the comments, so the rule works on how often one contact comments, not on identical wording. Make sure Conversation Type covers every network and type you want to moderate.

Why Does My Rule Show Upcoming?

Its Active period start time is in the future. The rule stays under Active rules and starts acting at that time. Hover over Upcoming in the Status column to see when.

Can I Create A Team Inbox From A Rule?

Yes. In the Move to Team Inbox action, type the name of the new inbox and pick the + option with that name. Statusbrew creates that Team Inbox and the rule moves matching conversations into it.

How Do I Pause A Rule?

Open the rule and click Pause, then click Confirm in the Pause rule dialog. The rule moves to the Paused rules tab, where its status shows Archived, and stops acting until you activate it again.

How Many Rules Can I Create?

It depends on your plan: Lite 25, Standard 100, Premium 500 and Enterprise 2,000 rules per organization. Each space can hold up to 300 rules. Engage, Publish and Notification rules all count toward this one total. When you reach your plan's limit, you'll see a prompt to upgrade your plan. At the Enterprise maximum, or at 300 rules in a space, you'll see a message asking you to contact support. Anything you already have above a limit is kept, but you can't add more until you are under it. Paused rules count toward the limit too.