Line up automations for the posts you've scheduled

If you schedule posts ahead, you can set up each one’s automation ahead too. Create an automation with binding: "next" and a starts_at just before the post’s publish time, set it live, and it runs on the first post published from that time on. No media_id, because the post doesn’t exist yet. You need a full key on a Growth workspace, and the account’s id from List accounts if the workspace has more than one.

Create one automation per scheduled post

Create an automation with binding: "next" and starts_at set a few minutes before the post’s scheduled time. starts_at is RFC 3339 with an offset, so 2026-11-13T17:55:00+05:30 and 2026-11-13T12:25:00Z are the same moment.

Set each one live

Set it live. From then on it waits. Nothing is sent until a post it can catch is published and someone comments.

Check which post each one caught

While it waits, Get an automation returns binding: "next" and its starts_at. Once it has caught its post, binding is specific and media_id names the post.

How posts are shared out

Several automations can wait at once, and each new post goes to exactly one of them:

Automations with a starts_at go first, earliest starts_at first. Each catches the first post published at or after its time.
Then automations without one, in the order they went live.
A post that already has a live automation of its own is skipped, and the waiting one keeps waiting.

So three automations for posts scheduled on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, each with a starts_at just before its post, catch those three posts in order. Five automations with no starts_at catch your next five posts.

Start a few minutes early. An automation catches the first post published at or after starts_at, so a start slightly before the scheduled time is always safe, and one a minute after it would miss the post and take the next one.

The whole flow

const API = "https://api.indm.social/v1";
const headers = {
  Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.INDM_API_KEY}`,
  "Content-Type": "application/json",
};

async function call(method, path, body) {
  const res = await fetch(API + path, {
    method,
    headers,
    body: body ? JSON.stringify(body) : undefined,
  });
  const json = await res.json();
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${json.error.code}: ${json.error.message}`);
  return json;
}

// One entry per post you've scheduled, with a start a few minutes early.
const scheduled = [
  { startsAt: "2026-11-16T17:55:00+05:30", keyword: "GUIDE", dm: "Here's the guide.", link: "https://example.com/guide" },
  { startsAt: "2026-11-18T17:55:00+05:30", keyword: "PRESET", dm: "Here are the presets.", link: "https://example.com/presets" },
];

for (const post of scheduled) {
  const automation = await call("POST", "/automations", {
    binding: "next",
    starts_at: post.startsAt,
    account_id: process.env.INDM_ACCOUNT_ID, // optional with one connected account
    keywords: [post.keyword],
    dm_message: post.dm,
    link_url: post.link,
  });
  await call("POST", `/automations/${automation.id}/status`, { status: "live" });
  console.log(automation.id, "waits from", automation.starts_at);
}

import os
import requests

API = "https://api.indm.social/v1"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['INDM_API_KEY']}"}

def call(method, path, body=None):
    res = requests.request(method, API + path, headers=HEADERS, json=body)
    data = res.json()
    if not res.ok:
        raise RuntimeError(f"{data['error']['code']}: {data['error']['message']}")
    return data

# One entry per post you've scheduled, with a start a few minutes early.
scheduled = [
    {"starts_at": "2026-11-16T17:55:00+05:30", "keyword": "GUIDE", "dm": "Here's the guide.", "link": "https://example.com/guide"},
    {"starts_at": "2026-11-18T17:55:00+05:30", "keyword": "PRESET", "dm": "Here are the presets.", "link": "https://example.com/presets"},
]

for post in scheduled:
    automation = call("POST", "/automations", {
        "binding": "next",
        "starts_at": post["starts_at"],
        "account_id": os.environ.get("INDM_ACCOUNT_ID"),  # optional with one connected account
        "keywords": [post["keyword"]],
        "dm_message": post["dm"],
        "link_url": post["link"],
    })
    call("POST", f"/automations/{automation['id']}/status", {"status": "live"})
    print(automation["id"], "waits from", automation["starts_at"])

What can go wrong

Code	Why
`next_post_requires_paid_plan`	Automations that wait for your next post are part of Growth. Attach it to a published post with `media_id` instead.
`account_id_required`	The workspace has more than one account. Say whose next post it waits for.
`starts_at_invalid`	`starts_at` has no offset, or isn’t a time. Send it as RFC 3339, like `2026-11-13T17:55:00+05:30`.
`media_id_with_next_binding`	You sent both. A `next` binding has no post yet.

The response’s caveats include starts_at_passed when the time you sent has already gone by. The automation is saved and catches the first post published after it’s set live.

Get started

Working with the API

Recipes

Line up automations for the posts you've scheduled

How posts are shared out

The whole flow

What can go wrong

​How posts are shared out

​The whole flow

​What can go wrong

How posts are shared out

The whole flow

What can go wrong