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

What a Gorgias rule actually controls

A rule is Gorgias' if-this-then-that engine for tickets. Per Gorgias' Rules 101 documentation, every rule is built from three parts. The WHEN is the trigger — the event that fires the rule. The IF is an optional condition (or several) that narrows down which tickets qualify. And the THEN is the action Gorgias performs when the trigger fires and the conditions pass.

The available triggers are: Ticket created, New message in ticket, Ticket updated, Ticket assigned to user, Ticket snooze delay ends, and Satisfaction survey responded. Conditions are assembled from a field (ticket channel, subject, tags, customer data, and more), an operator (is, contains, starts with), and a value — with one gotcha worth remembering: AND and OR conditions can't be mixed inside the same IF statement. And actions run the gamut from tagging and assignment to setting status, priority, applying a macro, or replying to the customer. If you want the deeper conceptual tour before building, Gorgias rules explained covers the model in full; this guide is the hands-on version.

Step 1: Open the Rules builder

Everything starts in one place. According to Gorgias' Set up a Rule guide, rules live in your helpdesk settings.

1. Click the Settings icon in the bottom-left corner of your helpdesk.
2. Under Ticket management, select Rules.
3. Click Create rule, then Create Custom Rule (or pick a pre-built option from the Rule Library to start from a template).
4. You'll land in the WHEN / IF / THEN builder — an empty canvas where you choose a trigger, add conditions, and stack actions.

Note two access facts up front: only the Owner, Admins, and Leads can create or edit rules, and you can run up to 70 rules simultaneously across your account. Rules apply across all your stores and channels, and they're available on all Helpdesk plans — no add-on required for the core automation covered here.

The screenshot above shows a rule mid-build — the exact skeleton every pattern in this guide shares. Now let's fill it in three different ways.

Step 2: Build an auto-tag rule (WISMO example)

Auto-tagging is the highest-leverage first rule for most ecommerce teams, because tags are what everything downstream — views, reporting, routing — depends on. The goal: every "where is my order" ticket gets a wismo tag the second it arrives.

1. WHEN: choose Ticket created.
2. IF: set the condition to Subject → operator contains → value where is my order. Add an OR branch for track, tracking, or shipping status to catch the common phrasings.
3. THEN: choose Add tags and type wismo (Gorgias will create the tag if it doesn't exist yet).
4. Name the rule "Auto-tag WISMO", save, and make sure it's toggled on.

That's it — every matching ticket is now labelled before an agent opens it. Because auto-tag adds tags without clearing existing ones, you can stack several tagging rules safely. If tags are new to you, Gorgias tags explained covers naming conventions so your library doesn't sprawl into 200 near-duplicates.

Step 3: Build an auto-assign rule (returns example)

Auto-assignment routes a ticket to the person or team that owns it. Say your returns team handles all return and exchange requests — you want those tickets on their plate automatically.

1. WHEN: choose Ticket created.
2. IF: set Tags → is → returns (assuming an earlier auto-tag rule applies it), or match on Subject contains "return" / "exchange" / "refund".
3. THEN: choose Assign team → Returns. To spread work evenly within that team, add Distribute to teams, which uses Gorgias' round-robin logic to hand the ticket to the next available agent in the group.
4. Save and enable.

The rule builder screenshot above is showing exactly this family of action — THEN Assign agent — mid-selection. One caution: order matters. Gorgias evaluates rules top-down, so if two rules could touch the same ticket, place the more specific one higher. A broad "assign everything to General Support" rule near the top will swallow tickets that should have hit your returns rule below it.

Step 4: Build an auto-close rule (order-confirmation noise)

Auto-close is how you silence tickets that need no reply — order-confirmation auto-replies, out-of-office bounces, "thanks!" one-liners. Left alone they inflate your queue and skew your metrics.

1. WHEN: choose Ticket created.
2. IF: set Subject → contains → order confirmation (add OR branches for "out of office", "automatic reply", "delivery notification").
3. THEN: choose Set status → Closed. Optionally Add tags auto-closed first, so you can audit what the rule caught.
4. Save and enable — then watch it for a few days before trusting it fully.

Auto-close is the pattern that most rewards a careful exclusion list: you never want to accidentally close a real customer whose subject line happens to contain a trigger word. Build the condition tightly, tag before you close, and review the closed tickets weekly at first.

Decision table: trigger, condition, action

The three rules above are variations on the same skeleton. Here's how the pieces map, so you can compose your own:

The lesson isn't the exact values — it's the shape. Pick a trigger that names the moment, a condition that names the ticket, and an action that names the outcome. Nearly every ecommerce automation you'll want fits that grammar.

The honest limits — and where an AI layer picks up

Gorgias rules are genuinely excellent at what they do: they're deterministic, fast, and transparent. A rule will fire the same way every time, and you can always trace exactly why a ticket got tagged, routed, or closed. But notice what a rule can't do. It matches on keywords and fields — not meaning. A subscription customer who writes "I want to pause my next box" won't trip a rule looking for the word "cancel," even though the intent is adjacent. And critically, a rule can route and label a ticket, but it cannot read the customer's actual problem and write the answer. Your auto-tag rule flags a WISMO; a human still has to go look up the order and reply.

Rules also don't reason across conditions the way a person would. Mixing AND and OR in one IF isn't allowed, so genuinely nuanced routing turns into a thicket of stacked rules that gets brittle fast. And the native AI Agent and Automate add-ons that do add AI replies and self-service are billed per resolution — you pay each time the AI closes out a conversation, which couples your cost directly to volume.

This is the seam where an AI agent layer fits, and it's worth understanding the build-versus-buy tradeoff before reaching for one. The broader category of AI agents for customer service exists precisely to do the reasoning-heavy work a keyword rule can't. Macha is one such layer: it runs on top of the Gorgias you already use as a native connector — it does not replace your helpdesk or its rules. You keep every rule you built above; Macha reads and writes the same tickets, drafting or posting grounded replies to the WISMO and returns tickets your rules just tagged, understanding intent instead of matching keywords, and looking up live order or subscription status through a custom tool that turns your store's API into something the agent can call. The Macha Gorgias integration walks through the connection.

One deliberate contrast worth naming: unlike Gorgias' native AI Agent, Macha's credits are consumed per AI action, not per resolution — an action being a discrete step the agent takes, so your cost tracks the work done rather than the outcome billed. The pricing page has the full breakdown. The clean division of labour: keep Gorgias rules as the deterministic backbone that tags, routes, and closes; layer an agent on top for the part a rule can't do — actually answering.

FAQ

Where do I set up rules in Gorgias? Click the Settings icon in the bottom-left of your helpdesk, go to Ticket management → Rules, then Create rule → Create Custom Rule. You'll build it in the WHEN / IF / THEN editor. Only the Owner, Admins, and Leads can create or edit rules.

What's the difference between a trigger, a condition, and an action? The trigger (WHEN) is the event that fires the rule — like Ticket created. The condition (IF) narrows which tickets qualify, using a field, an operator, and a value. The action (THEN) is what Gorgias does — tag, assign, close, set priority, apply a macro, and more.

How many rules can I have, and are they on every plan? You can run up to 70 rules simultaneously, and core rules are available on all Helpdesk plans. The AI Agent and Automate add-ons — which add AI replies and self-service on top of rules — are separate and billed per resolution.

Can two rules conflict? Yes. Gorgias evaluates rules top-down, so ordering matters. Put your most specific rules above broad catch-alls, and use tags to sequence multi-step automations (tag first, then route on the tag).

Can I add AI to Gorgias rules without replacing Gorgias? Yes. An AI agent layer like Macha connects to Gorgias as a native connector and runs on top of your existing helpdesk and its rules — it doesn't replace them. It helps meet the tickets your rules tag and route by drafting or sending grounded replies, while Gorgias stays the system of record. And Macha bills per AI action, not per resolution.

Ready to let your agents answer the tickets your rules just sorted? Start a free trial of Macha and connect it to your Gorgias in minutes.