Agent setup guide
New Follower Welcome
Every new Mastodon follower logged to a sheet and, after your approval, welcomed with a short private message, with a daily limit you set.
What it does
Every new Mastodon follower logged to a sheet and, after your approval, welcomed with a short private message, with a daily limit you set.
- Starts for each new follower of your Mastodon account (checked every few minutes).
- Counts today's welcomes in code against the daily limit you set; over the limit, the follower is logged without a welcome.
- AI writes a short, friendly welcome in your voice with one useful link, and skips likely spam accounts (or everyone, when you switch welcomes off).
- Each welcome waits for your approval, is checked in code (not blank, no placeholders, 500 characters) and is sent as a private mention.
- Logs every follower to your Google Sheet with the date and what happened.
What it needs
- A paid plan (agents run live on paid plans).
- An AI provider key (Settings → AI Providers).
- Mastodon and Google Sheets, connected in Settings → Integrations.
- A followers tab with the columns Date | Follower | Name | Result.
What it doesn't do
- Mastodon only: Bluesky new followers aren't covered (there's no Bluesky follower trigger).
- It doesn't follow back, DM in bulk or send anything without your approval.
- It only sees the follower's handle and display name, not their profile or posts.
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: Mastodon and Google Sheets.
- The app it watches, connected in Settings → Integrations (the agent starts from an app event).
- About 10 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 Mastodon
Connect Mastodon with your server and an access token with read and write scopes (Settings → Integrations → Mastodon).
3. Connect Google Sheets
Connect the Google account that can open your followers sheet (Settings → Integrations → Google Sheets).
4. Pick your Mastodon account
Open the trigger and pick the Mastodon account to watch.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Mastodon account (followers) | The Mastodon account whose new followers start a run. Pick your connected Mastodon account. | “New Mastodon follower” |
5. Describe your welcome and limit
Open “Your daily limit” and set the maximum welcomes per day, then “Write the welcome” and replace the placeholder with your rules.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum welcomes per day | A number, e.g. 10. Followers over this limit are logged without a welcome. It starts as “[MAX WELCOMES PER DAY]” until you replace it. | “Your daily limit” |
| Your welcome rules | Replace the placeholder with your business, tone, one useful link for new followers and SEND WELCOMES: yes or no. It starts as “[DESCRIBE YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR TONE, ONE USEFUL LINK FOR NEW FOLLOWERS (NEWSLETTER, SHOP OR GUIDE) AND WHETHER TO WELCOME NEW FOLLOWERS AT ALL. SEND WELCOMES: yes]” until you replace it. | “Write the welcome” |
6. Pick the account that sends
Open “Send the welcome” and pick the same Mastodon account.
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Mastodon account (welcomes, same one) | The same Mastodon account. Pick your connected Mastodon account. | “Send the welcome” |
7. Pick the followers sheet
Open “Log the follower” and pick the account, spreadsheet and tab (columns Date | Follower | Name | Result).
| Setting | What to enter | In step |
|---|---|---|
| Google account (Followers) | The Google account that can open the spreadsheet. Pick your connected Google Sheets account. | “Log the follower” |
| Followers spreadsheet | Paste the link of the spreadsheet. | “Log the follower” |
| Followers tab | The tab for the follower log (columns Date | Follower | Name | Result). | “Log the follower” |
8. Test it with Dry Run
Press Dry Run: the agent runs on sample data with no messages sent and nothing written to your apps.
9. Switch the trigger on
Open the trigger and click “Activate app trigger”: new followers are checked every few minutes.
How it works
The agent is a normal workflow with 15 steps (1 AI step, with a person approving in Reviews). You can open, edit and monitor it like any other workflow.
- New Mastodon follower — Starts on “New follower” in Mastodon (an app event). Starts a run for each new follower of your Mastodon account (checked every few minutes).
- Today's date — Step. In code: today's date in your time zone, for the daily limit and the log.
- Welcomes so far today — Recalls what it remembered earlier (memory “new-follower-welcome”). Reads how many welcomes were drafted today.
- Your daily limit — Step. Holds your maximum number of welcomes per day next to today's count.
- Count today's welcomes — Step. In code, not AI: today's welcomes with this one, and how far that is over your daily limit.
- Under the daily limit? — Decision: picks the branch to follow. Over your daily limit: no welcome today (the follower is still logged).
- Count this welcome — Remembers it for later runs (memory “new-follower-welcome”, kept 2 days). Branch: Under the limit. Stores today's new count (kept 2 days).
- Write the welcome — AI step (runs on your AI provider key). AI writes a short, friendly welcome mention in your voice, or skips likely spam accounts and skips everyone when welcomes are switched off.
- Welcome them? — Decision: picks the branch to follow. Welcomes off, or a likely spam account: no welcome. Otherwise the draft waits for approval.
- Approve the welcome — A person approves or rejects it in Reviews (the run waits). Branch: Review. Each welcome waits in Reviews: edit, approve to send it as a private mention, or reject.
- Check before sending — Step. Branch: Approved. In code: the welcome is there, has no leftover placeholders and fits 500 characters.
- Passed the checks? — Decision: picks the branch to follow. Passed: sent. Otherwise nothing is sent.
- Send the welcome — Mastodon: Publish a post. Branch: Send. Sends the welcome as a private mention (visibility: mentioned people only).
- Log the follower — Google Sheets: Add a row. Branch: Limit reached / No welcome / Rejected / Held. Adds the follower to your followers sheet (Date | Follower | Name | Result) with what happened.
- Logged — Kept in the run history. The run history keeps the welcome and the log row.
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. The sample has the same shape as a real event from the app.
Sample data fields
account_acct, account_name, id, type, created_at, account_id, status_id, status_url, status_content, status_visibility, notification.
- 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.
- Memory steps don't read or write stored memory: a recall finds nothing, and a save only shows what it would store.
Go live
- Open the trigger and click “Activate app trigger”: new followers are checked every few minutes.
- Activating the app trigger needs the trigger's connected account. The first check only remembers what's already there, so older items don't start runs; the same item never starts two runs.
- 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
Is the welcome public?
No: it's sent as a private mention, which only the follower (and you) can see.
How does the daily limit work?
Today's welcomes are counted in code; once a new follower would go over your limit, they're logged without a welcome. Welcomes waiting in Reviews count too. If several people follow at the same moment, the count can be off by one.
What about Bluesky followers?
Not in this agent: our Bluesky connection has no new-follower trigger, so it welcomes Mastodon followers only.
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.
- No runs start: activate the app trigger with a connected account. Only items created after activation start runs.
- 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 .