Agent setup guide
Dealership Internet Lead Responder
Answers website leads from your inventory sheet with two test-drive times, hands finance questions to a person and logs the deal in HubSpot.
What it does
Answers website leads from your inventory sheet with two test-drive times, hands finance questions to a person and logs the deal in HubSpot.
- Starts when your website's vehicle-page or contact form posts a lead (stock #, questions, trade-in yes/no) to its webhook.
- Looks the stock # up in your inventory sheet: status, advertised price and features.
- AI drafts the reply: confirms availability only from the sheet, answers from the vehicle data, proposes two test-drive times within your hours and asks the trade-in basics. Today's date and the next days' dates are worked out in code in your time zone, so proposed days are real dates.
- Financing, payment, credit and trade-in value questions are emailed to your F&I person; the customer's reply only says they'll be contacted, with no numbers.
- Approval switch, on by default: a salesperson approves every reply. Switched off, finance leads, unknown or sold vehicles and unusual leads still wait.
- After sending, creates or updates the HubSpot contact, creates a deal with the stock # in your pipeline, links them and posts the lead to #sales-floor in Slack.
What it needs
- A paid plan (agents run live on paid plans).
- An AI provider key (Settings → AI Providers).
- Google Sheets, HubSpot and Slack, connected in Settings → Integrations.
- An inventory sheet with a stock # column, status and advertised price, and a website form that can post JSON to a webhook.
- Your sales hours, price disclaimer and your F&I manager's name and email.
What it doesn't do
- It drafts and organises for a person to approve; it makes no legal, credit, medical/veterinary, permit, eligibility or coverage decision. It never gives payments, APRs, credit answers or trade-in values — a person handles those.
- It doesn't negotiate or offer anything below the advertised price, and it only states availability your sheet shows.
- It doesn't book the test drive: it proposes two times and the customer replies.
- It doesn't import ADF/XML leads from third-party lead sites (AutoTrader, Cars.com) — only your own website form.
Availability and plans
Available
Its workflow is built and tested, and every app it needs is live. You can get it and set it up now.
Included free on the Enterprise plan; on other paid plans it's a one-time purchase per workspace (the price is on the Agents page). The Agents page in the app always shows its current status.
Before you start
- A paid plan: agents run live, and the Free plan only runs Dry Runs.
- An AI provider key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and more) in Settings → AI Providers. AI usage is billed by your provider.
- These apps, connected in Settings → Integrations: Google Sheets, HubSpot and Slack.
- A form, app or system that can send each new item to a webhook URL (the agent starts from a webhook).
- About 25 minutes.
Set it up step by step
Get the agent first (buy it, or it's already yours when your plan includes it), then in Agents → My agents press “Set up this agent”. That creates the agent's workflow in your workspace (it counts towards your plan's workflow limit) and opens the canvas with a setup checklist above it. Each item links to the exact place to go and ticks itself off when it's done.
1. Connect your AI provider
The AI steps run on your own key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and more). Add one in Settings → AI Providers.
2. Connect Google Sheets
Connect the Google account that can open your inventory sheet (Settings → Integrations → Google Sheets).
3. Connect HubSpot
Connect the HubSpot account your sales team uses (Settings → Integrations → HubSpot).
4. Connect Slack
Connect the Slack workspace your sales team uses (Settings → Integrations → Slack).
5. Pick your inventory sheet
Open “Look up the stock # in your inventory”, pick your account, the spreadsheet and tab, and enter the stock # column's header.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Google account (inventory) | The Google account that can open your inventory sheet. Pick your connected Google Sheets account. | “Look up the stock # in your inventory” |
| Inventory spreadsheet | Paste the link of the spreadsheet with your inventory. | “Look up the stock # in your inventory” |
| Inventory tab | The tab with one row per vehicle: stock #, status, year, make, model, trim, mileage, advertised price, features. | “Look up the stock # in your inventory” |
| Stock # column | The header of the column with stock numbers, exactly as written in row 1, e.g. Stock #. | “Look up the stock # in your inventory” |
6. Describe your dealership
Open “Draft the reply” and replace the placeholder with your hours, price disclaimer, F&I manager's name and email, trade-in basics and sign-off, then open “Work out today and the next days” and enter your time zone.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Your dealership details | Replace the placeholder with your dealership's name and address, sales hours and time zone, who signs replies, your price disclaimer, your F&I manager's name and email (finance questions are emailed there), what you need for a trade-in appraisal, and REVIEW EVERY REPLY: yes (or no). It starts as “[PASTE YOUR DEALERSHIP NAME, ADDRESS, SALES HOURS AND TIME ZONE, WHO SIGNS REPLIES, YOUR PRICE DISCLAIMER (TAXES, FEES), YOUR F&I MANAGER'S NAME AND EMAIL, WHAT YOU NEED FOR A TRADE-IN APPRAISAL, AND WHETHER EVERY REPLY NEEDS APPROVAL (REVIEW EVERY REPLY: YES/NO) HERE]” until you replace it. | “Draft the reply” |
| Your time zone | Your dealership's time zone as an IANA name (e.g. America/Chicago), so “today” and the test-drive days are your local dates. | “Work out today and the next days” |
7. Add your sales inbox
Open “Email the customer” and enter the address customers' replies should go to.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Your sales inbox (Reply-to) | Customers' replies come back to this address. | “Email the customer” |
8. Pick your HubSpot account and pipeline
Open the three HubSpot steps, pick your account in each, and the pipeline and first stage in “Create the deal (stock #)”.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot account (contacts) | The HubSpot account your sales team uses. Pick your connected HubSpot account. | “Create or update the HubSpot contact” |
| HubSpot account (deals) | The same HubSpot account, used to create the deal. Pick your connected HubSpot account. | “Create the deal (stock #)” |
| Sales pipeline | The HubSpot deal pipeline for vehicle sales. | “Create the deal (stock #)” |
| First stage | The stage new web leads start in, e.g. “New lead”. | “Create the deal (stock #)” |
| HubSpot account (link records) | The same HubSpot account, used to link the deal to the contact. Pick your connected HubSpot account. | “Link the deal to the contact” |
9. Pick the sales floor channel
Open “Post to #sales-floor” and pick your account and channel. Invite the app to private channels first (/invite @Fluxo Flow).
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Slack account | The Slack workspace your sales team uses. Pick your connected Slack account. | “Post to #sales-floor” |
| Sales floor channel | Where answered leads are posted, e.g. #sales-floor. | “Post to #sales-floor” |
10. Test it with Dry Run
Press Dry Run: the agent runs on sample data with no messages sent and nothing written to your apps.
11. Switch the trigger on
Open the trigger, switch the webhook on and copy its URL and secret into your website's lead form.
How it works
The agent is a normal workflow with 17 steps (1 AI step, with a person approving in Reviews). You can open, edit and monitor it like any other workflow.
- Lead from your website — Starts when your form or app sends data to the agent's webhook URL. Starts when your website's vehicle-page or contact form posts a lead to this webhook: name, email, phone, stock #, questions and trade-in yes/no.
- Work out today and the next days — Step. In code, not AI: today's date and weekday in your time zone and the dates of the next 7 days, so the AI proposes test-drive times on real dates.
- Look up the stock # in your inventory — Google Sheets: Find a row. Finds the vehicle in your inventory sheet by stock #: status, advertised price, features.
- Draft the reply — AI step (runs on your AI provider key). AI confirms availability from your sheet, answers the questions from the vehicle data, offers two test-drive times from your hours and asks the trade-in basics. Finance, payment and credit questions are flagged for your F&I person, with no numbers in the draft.
- Finance questions? — Decision: picks the branch to follow. Financing, payment, credit and trade-in value questions go to your F&I person by email, so a person answers them.
- Hand finance questions to your F&I person — Sends an email from your workspace's sender. Branch: Finance question. Emails your F&I manager the customer's finance questions in their own words, with their contact details and the vehicle. The customer's reply contains no numbers.
- F&I notified — Kept in the run history. The run history keeps the email to your F&I person.
- No finance questions — Kept in the run history. Branch: No finance. Nothing for F&I in this lead.
- Approve first? — Decision: picks the branch to follow. With the approval switch on (the default) every reply waits for a salesperson; switched off, only finance leads, unknown or sold vehicles and odd leads wait.
- Salesperson approves the reply — A person approves or rejects it in Reviews (the run waits). Branch: Review first. A salesperson checks the availability, the answers and the test-drive times, edits the reply if needed and approves.
- Not sent — Kept in the run history. Branch: Rejected. The salesperson rejected the reply; nothing was sent or logged.
- Email the customer — Sends an email from your workspace's sender. Branch: Send without review / Approved. Sends the reply from your workspace's sender, with replies going to your sales inbox.
- Create or update the HubSpot contact — HubSpot: Create or update a contact. Creates the lead as a HubSpot contact (or updates the one with the same email).
- Create the deal (stock #) — HubSpot: Create a deal. Creates a deal named after the customer and the vehicle (with its stock #) in your sales pipeline.
- Link the deal to the contact — HubSpot: Link two records. Associates the deal with the contact so the lead history sits together.
- Post to #sales-floor — Slack: Post a message. Posts the lead, the vehicle, availability, trade-in and the proposed test-drive times to your sales floor channel.
- Answered and logged — Kept in the run history. The run history keeps the reply, the HubSpot ids and the Slack post.
Test it with Dry Run
Press Dry Run in the canvas. The agent runs on the sample data stored on its trigger (the “Sample data for Dry Run” box), so you can check every step's output before anything is live. Edit the sample to match the fields your own form or app sends.
Sample data fields
name, email, phone, stock_number, questions, trade_in, page_url, submitted_at.
- Nothing is sent or written: app actions, emails and Slack posts are simulated, and AI steps don't call your AI provider.
- Approval steps use the Dry Run decision you pick in the step's settings (approved, rejected or timeout), so you can try each branch.
Go live
- Open the trigger, switch the webhook on and copy its URL and secret into your website's lead form.
- The webhook is protected by a secret: send it in the header shown in the Activation panel (requests without it are refused with 403). Each request starts one run.
- The setup checklist adds a “paid plan” item before activation: live runs need a paid plan (the Free plan only runs Dry Runs).
- When every checklist item is done and the trigger is on, the checklist says “Live — this agent is running”. Follow its runs in the workflow's History tab and in Analytics → Agents.
Questions
What should the website form send?
A JSON POST with name, email, phone, stock_number, questions and trade_in (yes/no). Your site posts it with the webhook's signature header.
Does it quote payments or trade-in values?
Never. Payments, APRs, credit and trade-in values are regulated and handled by a person: those questions are emailed to your F&I manager, and the customer's reply says they'll be contacted.
Can it read leads from AutoTrader or Cars.com?
No. It doesn't import ADF/XML leads from third-party lead sites; it answers leads from your own website form.
Troubleshooting
- “No AI provider connected” or a rejected key: connect or fix the key in Settings → AI Providers, then press Test there.
- A checklist item stays unticked: the setting is still empty or still contains its placeholder text. Open the step from the checklist and fill it in.
- An app step fails with “Needs reconnect”: the account's access was revoked or expired. Reconnect it in Settings → Integrations.
- Slack says the app isn't in the channel: in Slack, type /invite @Fluxo Flow in that channel (always needed for private channels).
- Nothing happens when your form sends data: check the webhook is switched on and the request carries the secret header (403 means it's missing or wrong).
- A run shows as paused: it's waiting for someone in Reviews to approve or reject it.
- A step failed: open the run in History and check that step in the Trace tab for the error and what it received.
Generated from the agent's own workflow, so it always matches what the agent does. Last updated .