META MESSENGER PLATFORM · LLM · GUARDRAILS · Cork AI Consulting
DM AssistantGuardrailed Instagram DM Assistant
Small businesses lose sales in their DMs: questions arrive at night and on weekends, and a slow reply is a lost customer. A chatbot that improvises is worse than no reply. This assistant answers only from approved facts and escalates everything else.
- 24/7 replies to customer enquiries
- Rules-bound answers only from approved facts
- Human handover when a question is out of scope
- Value 24/7 Always answering
- Time Routine DMs Handled automatically
- Effort Meta platform Built on official APIs
- Quality 0 Made-up answers allowed
- Gate A closed book, not an open one
- Step 02 Refusal as a feature
- Step 03 Official platform only
- Output 24/7 Always answering
01 — Context
The problem.
Owners of small businesses answer the same DM questions over and over, usually outside working hours. Replies are slow, and enquiries go cold.
Generic AI chatbots fix the speed and break the trust: they guess, and a confident wrong price or opening time costs more than a slow right one.
02 — Method
The approach.
The build, in the order it happened.
-
A closed book, not an open one
The assistant answers from an approved set of business facts and rules. It is not allowed to fill gaps from general knowledge.
-
Refusal as a feature
Out-of-scope or uncertain questions get a polite holding reply and are escalated to the owner, with the conversation attached.
-
Official platform only
Built on Meta’s Messenger Platform webhooks and messaging APIs — no scraping or unofficial clients.
- Sources Meta Messenger Platform (Instagram)Claude APIJavaScript / Node
- Gate A closed book, not an open one
- Step 02 Refusal as a feature
- Step 03 Official platform only
- Output 24/7 Always answering
03 — A run
What one run looks like.
The steps above, played as the agent would walk them. A reading of the write-up, not a recording of a real run.
run dm-assistant
[plan] 3 steps
[gate] ✓ A closed book, not an open one
↳ The assistant answers from an approved set of business facts and rules
[step 02] Refusal as a feature
↳ Out-of-scope or uncertain questions get a polite holding reply and are…
[step 03] Official platform only
↳ Built on Meta’s Messenger Platform webhooks and messaging APIs
[tools] Meta Messenger Platform (Instagram) · Claude API · JavaScript / Node · Webhooks · Vercel
[handoff] Customer enquiries answered 24/7 within strict rules
[exit 0]
04 — Outcome
What changed.
- Customer enquiries answered 24/7 within strict rules.
- Out-of-scope questions reach the owner instead of getting an invented answer.
05 — Screens
What it looks like.
Generated from the write-up rather than captured from a client's screen — the shape of the thing, not a leaked one.
A 24/7 assistant that answers customer enquiries in Instagram DMs within strict rules — and hands over to a person rather than ever making an answer up.
Every message takes the same path: in the approved facts, reply; otherwise hand over to the owner.
The closed book: opening hours, prices and availability. No answer comes from outside it.
06 — Stack & role
Built with.
- Meta Messenger Platform (Instagram)
- Claude API
- JavaScript / Node
- Webhooks
- Vercel
- Role
- Co-founder — design and build
- Duration
- 2026
- Client
- Cork AI Consulting
- Period
- 2026
07 — Questions
The questions I get asked about this one.
It only answers from approved content, and anything it cannot ground in that content is escalated instead of answered.