How to Set Up Rules in Front (with Real Examples)

Where rules live and how to create one

Front rules come in three scopes, and each has its own home. Per Front's guide to understanding rules, personal (individual) rules live under Personal settings → Rules and affect only your own inbox; workspace (shared) rules live under Workspace settings → Rules and macros and drive your team's shared inboxes; and company rules live under Company settings → Rules, are admin-only, and are an Enterprise-plan feature. For everything a support, sales, or ops team does day to day, you want workspace rules.

To build one, open Workspace settings → Rules and macros, click Create rule, and choose Create linear rule. Every rule you make from here is the same three-part sentence:

1. When — the trigger event that wakes the rule up (an inbound message is received, a tag is added, a conversation is assigned).
2. If — one or more conditions the conversation must pass, chainable with AND/OR logic (subject contains a keyword, the conversation is in a chosen inbox, the sender is from a domain).
3. Then — one or more actions Front performs (add a tag, assign to a teammate, reply with a template, move inbox).

That linear shape covers the vast majority of automations. If you want the underlying model in more depth, Front rules explained breaks down the engine; here we're building.

Example 1 — Auto-tag by topic

The simplest useful rule labels conversations so the rest of your automation (and your reporting) has something to work with. Tags are the vocabulary your inbox routes and reports on, so build them first — Front tags explained covers the tag manager itself.

1. Create rule → Create linear rule. Name it Tag billing questions.
2. When: An inbound message is received.
3. If: Conversation subject contains → add the keywords invoice, refund, billing, charge (Front matches any one).
4. Then: Add tags → Billing.
5. Save.

Now every inbound message mentioning a billing keyword is tagged the instant it lands. You'll lean on that Billing tag in the round-robin and SLA rules below.

Example 2 — Round-robin assignment

Auto-assignment stops conversations from sitting unowned. Front offers two distribution methods, and it's worth knowing the difference. Per Front's guide to round robin vs. load balancing, round robin "automatically assigns incoming messages to available team members in a sequential order" — it simply cycles through the team one by one. Load balancing instead queues each conversation to the teammate with the fewest open assigned conversations, up to a per-teammate limit. Round robin is the right default when everyone's roughly equally available; load balancing shines when workloads are uneven.

1. Create rule → Create linear rule. Name it Round-robin support.
2. When: An inbound message is received.
3. If: Conversation is in inbox → your Support inbox (optionally AND tag is Billing to route only billing conversations).
4. Then: Assign to teammates → pick your Support group, set the distribution method to round robin.
5. Save.

One honesty note here: load balancing rules require the Professional plan or above, per Front's rule limits documentation. Basic round-robin assignment is available more widely, but the fine-grained load-balancing controls (per-teammate caps, "assign even without access") sit behind a paid tier.

Example 3 — Auto-reply to a common question

An auto-reply sets expectations instantly — an acknowledgement, hours, or a link to your help center — while a human picks up the real work. This is exactly the rule shown mid-build in the screenshot above: named Auto-reply to billing questions, triggered when an inbound message arrives, scoped to a selected inbox where the subject contains a keyword.

1. Create rule → Create linear rule. Name it Auto-reply to billing questions.
2. When: An inbound message is received.
3. If: Conversation is in inbox → Support AND Conversation subject contains → refund (add outside business hours if you only want it after-hours).
4. Then: Reply with a message → select or write a message template, e.g. "Thanks — we've got your billing question and a specialist will reply within one business day."
5. Optionally also Add tag Auto-replied so you can see which conversations got the templated touch.
6. Save.

Keep the template genuinely useful and honest — an auto-reply that over-promises ("we'll reply in 5 minutes") does more harm than the delay it's covering for.

Example 4 — An SLA (time goal) rule

Front's time-goal rules turn a service-level agreement into automation: set a reply deadline, and Front tracks it and escalates on a miss. Per Front's time goal rules guide, you create these from the Set reply time goal template.

1. Create rule → Create linear rule and pick the Set reply time goal template.
2. When: An inbound message is received.
3. Set the reply time goal, e.g. 1 h, and choose within business hours so the timer pauses overnight (Front's example: a message arriving at 4:00 PM with a 4-hour goal and 8 AM–5 PM hours reaches its goal the next morning), or regardless of business hours for round-the-clock coverage.
4. Enable Warn when goal is at risk to get a heads-up before the breach.
5. On breach: Front adds an SLA breach tag automatically; add escalation actions such as notify a teammate or assign to a lead.
6. Save.

Two honest caveats. Time goal rules require the Professional plan or above, per Front's documentation. And while Front Analytics includes time-goal reporting, richer SLA and custom analytics live on higher tiers — see Front pricing explained for exactly what unlocks where. The rule itself, though, is native and dependable once you're on a qualifying plan.

A starter triage set (in order)

Individually these rules are useful; as an ordered set they become a triage pipeline. Rules evaluate top to bottom, so put the most specific, highest-stakes rules first. A sensible starter order for a support inbox:

The logic: kill noise first, then label, then start the SLA clock, then acknowledge, then assign what's left. Ordering assignment last means tags and time goals are already applied before a conversation lands on someone's plate.

Rule order and "stop processing other rules"

The one switch that trips everyone up is Stop processing other rules. When you enable it on a rule, Front runs that rule's actions and then stops — any rules below it that would have matched are skipped. Front is explicit that "if a rule is processed, and you don't want other rules listed below to apply, check the Stop processing other rules box." It's how you say "this conversation is fully handled." Two things to remember, both from Front's understanding rules documentation:

• Company rules always run first — they "behave as if they were ordered before all other rules," so a company rule with stop-processing enabled can silently prevent every workspace and personal rule from firing.
• Delayed / time-based rules bypass stop-processing. Rules built on Unreplied after, Unassigned after, or Time since triggered are scheduled to run later, so they aren't skipped by an earlier rule's stop switch — which is exactly why your SLA escalation still fires even when an upstream rule stopped processing.

The honest limits — and where an AI layer picks up

Front's rule engine is deterministic, and that's its strength: it does exactly what you tell it, in a predictable order, every time. For tagging, routing, assignment, and templated auto-replies, that reliability is precisely what you want.

But rules match on patterns, not meaning. A condition like subject contains "refund" is a keyword test — it won't catch "I was double-charged and want my money back." A template reply is the same fixed text for everyone who trips the trigger; it can't read this customer's invoice and answer their question. And the most powerful actions are plan-gated: load balancing and time goals need Professional+, while dynamic variables and company rules are Enterprise, per Front's rule documentation. A busy team on a smaller plan can hit the 10-rule (Starter) or 20-rule (Professional) workspace ceiling faster than expected.

That seam is where an AI agent layer fits — not to replace the rule engine, but to do the reasoning a keyword match structurally can't. The broader category of AI agents for customer service exists for exactly this work. Macha is one such layer: it runs on top of the Front you already use through the live Macha–Front connector — it doesn't replace Front, your shared inboxes, or your rules. You keep your rules doing what they're good at: getting the right conversation to the right place with the right tags and the SLA clock running. Then Macha's agent reads that routed conversation, understands intent instead of keywords, and drafts or sends a grounded reply — pulling a real order or account status through a custom tool that turns your REST API into something the agent can call. A rule tags a message "billing" in milliseconds; the agent then actually resolves the billing question. If you want the mechanics, connecting Front to Macha to route conversations to AI walks through it, and Macha's credits are consumed per AI action, never per resolution. For how rules and inboxes fit together as a system, see the wider Front shared inbox model.

FAQ

Where do I set up rules in Front? Workspace (shared) rules live under Workspace settings → Rules and macros — click Create rule → Create linear rule. Personal rules are under Personal settings → Rules, and company rules under Company settings → Rules (admin-only, Enterprise). Every rule is a When (trigger) → If (condition) → Then (action) sentence.

What's the difference between round robin and load balancing assignment? Round robin cycles through available teammates in sequential order, distributing conversations evenly. Load balancing queues each conversation to the teammate with the fewest open assigned conversations, up to a per-teammate limit. Load balancing rules require the Professional plan or above.

How do I create an SLA in Front? Use the Set reply time goal template in Workspace settings → Rules and macros. Set a reply deadline (e.g. 1h), choose whether it counts within business hours or around the clock, and add escalation actions on breach. Front adds an SLA breach tag automatically on a miss. Time goal rules require the Professional plan or above.

What does "stop processing other rules" do? When enabled, Front runs that rule's actions and then skips any rules below it that would have matched. Company rules always run first, and delayed/time-based rules (Unreplied after, Unassigned after) bypass the setting.

Can I add AI to Front rules without replacing Front? Yes. An AI agent layer like Macha connects to Front as a live connector on top of your existing inboxes and rules. Your rules keep routing and tagging deterministically; the agent reads the routed conversation, understands intent, and drafts or sends a grounded reply.

Ready to turn "routed and tagged" into "actually answered"? Start a free trial of Macha and connect it to your Front in minutes.