> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.callprep.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Autopilot overview

> How the Autopilot turns a new CRM contact into researched, personalised outreach across LinkedIn, email, WhatsApp and Telegram — and stops the moment someone answers.

## What an Autopilot is

An Autopilot is **three decisions**:

1. **Who** gets contacted — a filter over your HubSpot contact properties
2. **What** is said to them — a sequence of touches, each written per lead from that lead's research
3. **When it stops** — a reply, a booked meeting, a CRM change

Everything between those decisions happens on its own: the research, the writing,
the sending, the pacing, the daily limits and the record in your CRM.

```
New contact in HubSpot
      ↓
Does it match one of your Autopilots?  ── no ──→  waits in the queue, then is
      ↓ yes                                       abandoned (no research, no credit)
Research the person and their company   (1 credit)
      ↓
Enrol into that Autopilot's sequence
      ↓
Touch by touch, from your own LinkedIn account / mailbox / number
      ↓
They answer → the sequence stops, on every channel
```

<Note>
  You can run several Autopilots side by side — one for inbound signups, one for
  a prospected list, one as a catch-all. A lead only ever belongs to **one** of
  them at a time.
</Note>

***

## What you need before it can run

| Requirement                  | Where                                                                                                                                    | Why                                                                                              |
| ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| A product                    | Settings → Product                                                                                                                       | Every message is written from your product description. Without it there is nothing to say.      |
| HubSpot connected            | [Integrations → HubSpot](/integrations/hubspot)                                                                                          | This is what tells CallPrep a lead exists.                                                       |
| At least one channel         | [LinkedIn](/integrations/linkedin), [Email](/integrations/email), [WhatsApp](/integrations/whatsapp), [Telegram](/integrations/telegram) | A channel is where messages send from. An Autopilot with no connected channel has nowhere to go. |
| Sender identity (email only) | Settings → Outreach → Email signature                                                                                                    | Commercial email must identify the sender. Email steps are held until it is complete.            |

***

## Which Autopilot gets a lead

Autopilots are checked **top to bottom**, and the **first matching filter wins**.
Nothing further down ever sees that lead. Use the arrows on the list to reorder —
specific Autopilots above, broad ones below.

* An Autopilot with **no filter** matches every lead. That is occasionally what
  you want, as a catch-all at the bottom of the list, and never what you want by
  accident. The list marks it **Catch-all** and greys out everything beneath it as
  *Never reached*.
* A **fallback Autopilot** is checked differently: it is skipped during the normal
  pass and gets the **last look** at a lead just before it would be abandoned. It
  keeps its own filter — a fallback is not the same thing as a catch-all.
* A lead already in an active sequence is not enrolled a second time.

***

## What it costs

**One credit per researched lead** — the same pool as the API and the Chrome
extension. Sending, retrying, skipping and rescheduling are all free.

A lead costs **nothing** when it is:

* abandoned after matching no filter
* skipped by *Addresses to skip* or *Excluded domains*
* already researched for this product (with **Research each contact only once** on,
  the default)

See [Credits](/plans/credits).

***

## Where everything lives

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Build your first Autopilot" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" href="/autopilot/build">
    Name, filter, channels, voice, the sequence, stop conditions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="What stops a sequence" icon="hand" href="/autopilot/stop-conditions">
    What ends it, what deliberately does not, and the one CRM gap to know about.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Activity and troubleshooting" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/autopilot/activity">
    Why a message was not sent, where a missing lead went, closing a lead by hand.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Templates" icon="copy" href="/autopilot/templates">
    Start from a ready-made Autopilot instead of a blank one.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Analytics" icon="chart-line" href="/autopilot/analytics">
    Outcomes, responded rate, and what counts as a win.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Settings" icon="sliders" href="/autopilot/settings">
    Queue wait time, addresses to skip, dropping messages that fall behind.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Frequently asked questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="I turned an Autopilot on and nothing happened.">
    Nothing is wrong yet — an Autopilot only acts on contacts **created after** it
    was switched on. Existing contacts are not swept up. If a new contact was
    created and still nothing happened, work through
    [Activity and troubleshooting](/autopilot/activity).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does it contact people who are already my customers?">
    Only if your filter lets it. Two guards help: **Excluded domains**
    (Settings → Outreach) skips whole companies for good, and a stop condition on a
    CRM property ends a sequence the moment someone's lifecycle stage moves. Both
    are worth setting before the first Autopilot goes live.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can one lead be in two Autopilots at once?">
    No. The first matching filter wins, and a lead in an active sequence is not
    enrolled again. It can enter a different Autopilot later, once the first
    sequence has ended and the contact comes back through your CRM.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do I have to write the messages?">
    No. You write the **angle** for each touch — the instruction — and the message
    itself is written per lead from that lead's research. **Show example** in the
    builder renders a real one before you commit.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What happens to a lead the research came up empty on?">
    The first email still goes out, because a first message can honestly ask what
    someone is trying to achieve. Later messages and the other channels need
    something real to say, and skip rather than send filler — with the reason
    recorded on the lead's timeline.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I pause everything at once?">
    Switch the Autopilots off, or pause the channel: a paused LinkedIn seat or
    mailbox stops sending while keeping every lead enrolled. Leads resume where they
    left off.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>