Autopilot Enrollment: Tags, Replies, and Opt-Outs

In Only contacts I tag mode, add ace-autopilot in Follow Up Boss to enroll a contact. The tag is the enrollment step; no separate contact-level approval is required. Your playbook settings, exclusions, and sending rules determine what happens next.

The order of checks

1. Account and playbook: Ace Trove is active, the platform and account switches permit the loop, and the relevant playbook is enabled.
2. Contact type: Ace only works contacts it reads as real prospects, and this check runs before targeting — so the ace-autopilot tag does not override it. Stages that mean “do not contact” (Trash, Spam, Junk, DNC) are excluded here, along with partners, other agents, vendors and internal or team records. Stages that simply mean cold — Archive, Cold, Unresponsive — are not excluded; re-engaging stale leads is exactly what the nurture and re-engagement playbooks are for. To work one excluded contact anyway, add ace-include to it in Follow Up Boss: that override beats both the stage rule and your account’s own configured exclusions. ace-ignore does the reverse, and beats everything.
3. Action permission: the requested Off, Draft, or Execute mode is limited by account and playbook review settings and current capabilities. Existing account, playbook, and per-contact limits remain in force.
4. Targeting: tagged mode requires ace-autopilot or a current legacy tag explicitly adopted by that enabled workflow. ace-autopilot-exclude blocks every modern Autopilot workflow in both targeting modes and wins over the include tag.
5. Enrollment or relationship: explicit tag enrollment is sufficient in tagged mode. Whole-book selection retains its existing basis checks, such as a real inbound interaction, closed business, or a first-party capture record.
6. A real reason to write: Ace needs useful facts about this contact. An include tag is not a fact about the person's needs, timing, budget, or property.
7. Human activity: recent agent momentum, an active human conversation, an under-contract state, or another active assistant can keep the contact out.
8. Stops and delivery: opt-outs, suppression, valid sender/channel, local sending hours, spacing, and daily limits still apply.

How Ace chooses the next contact

During a scheduled pass, enabled workflows take turns considering contacts, with new leads first in each round. This gives re-engagement and nurture a turn before a busy new-lead workflow can use the entire account allowance. Workflows share the account’s daily limit and retain their own limits; the split is not a fixed quota or a promise to send.

Within each workflow’s current candidate group, available current model estimates can inform priority. This is not a ranking of your entire database, and a missing score does not by itself exclude a contact. As later passes continue through the remaining contacts, enrollment, contact context, sending permissions, recent human activity, and opt-outs still determine whether Ace can act.

In Autopilot → Activity, Why Ace selected this contact explains the recorded decision when available. The contact’s last synced Win Score is shown separately; it may differ from the information available when Ace originally selected the contact.

Grounded messages, with honest limits

Ace reads the authorized contact record and bounded available history. Grounding can include first-party capture answers, a recorded referral, relevant agent memory, and eligible account knowledge allowed by the admin. Selected knowledge remains subject to global AI exclusions and approvals; included sources are checked again before an action or send is admitted. Model scores and private timing signals are not quoted to the recipient as personal facts. A readable message body is one record, not a complete email inbox, text thread, or unseen call transcript. Missing or restricted content stays unavailable.

Admins can set Communication style & focus under Autopilot → Controls. Topic preferences guide future messages only when relevant; they do not supply facts, change enrollment, or override sending rules. See the communication preferences guide for the available choices.

Read message activity accurately

Expand Review submitted messages on a contact’s Activity card to read the retained message content. Email acceptance and a submitted text request are different from confirmed recipient delivery, reading, or a reply. Older message content may not have been recorded. Missing content does not prove no message was sent — check the contact’s Follow Up Boss record, where a relay send is logged as an “Email sent” note and a send from your own connected mailbox appears in the email history.

What happens after a reply

A verified current reply can start or continue an eligible Autopilot conversation while the cadence pauses. Ace asks useful follow-up questions and hands off for a qualified or requested human next step. Opt-outs, enrollment removal, and human takeover stop automation. If content or origin cannot be verified, or a previous action has an unknown outcome, automatic work waits for review. An appointment request can produce a draft for human coordination; Ace does not check calendar availability, reserve a slot, or book the appointment.

Common reasons nothing happened

• Awaiting activation: your settings are saved, but platform activation has not enabled the loop.
• Not targeted: the account uses tagged mode and the include tag is absent.
• Excluded by tag: remove the exclusion only when your team intends to re-enroll the contact.
• No grounding evidence: record a useful, accurate contact fact; a tag alone is not enough content for a personalized message.
• Agent momentum or engaged contact: Ace leaves conversations owned by a human or another assistant. Its own eligible conversation can continue through verified replies.
• Sending window, timezone, or cap: the next touch may be deferred or blocked by channel requirements.
• Drafts-first: check the assigned agent's review queue rather than the recipient's inbox.

One control and billing model

Autopilot workflows for new leads, re-engagement, and nurture are included with Ace Trove. Modern workflows do not add a per-nurtured-contact charge. SMS and calling use your own Lead Engage subscription and its provider charges. Moving to unified Autopilot does not automatically cancel or migrate an existing legacy nurture subscription; review any legacy billing separately.

Bring existing nurture tags into a workflow

Old tags and old RANT settings do not turn on modern Autopilot. In Workflows, explicitly select the existing tags that a workflow may adopt, save your proposal, and use Only contacts I tag. New-lead workflows can adopt ai_nurture_new, ai_hot, or ai_offhours; nurture can adopt ai_nurture_long; re-engagement can adopt ai_rehash. Conflicting workflow tags require review. A tag cannot supply missing contact facts or override the contact’s current lifecycle.

ace-autopilot-exclude and ai_dead stop all modern Autopilot workflows, including nurture, in both targeting modes. Stops still require tracked cleanup for any provider work already accepted; a stop request is not proof that an external queue has cleared.

See setup, Companion status, and per-playbook graduation.