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Publish and go live
Clear the publish checks, flip your flow live, and watch the first runs arrive — with the safety guardrails already on.
Draft versus published
A draft is your sandbox: edit freely, live-test with a code, break things — real followers never see it. Publishing is the switch that lets live events run the flow: from that moment, every trigger pointed at it fires for real.
Editing a published flow doesn’t change what’s live. Your changes wait as “unpublished changes” until you publish again — and if you ever want it offline, pause it from the Flows list and it returns to draft with nothing lost.
Clear the publish checks
Publishing runs stricter validation than saving a draft, because now mistakes reach real people. Anything that would break the conversation — an unreachable branch, a message that violates a platform limit — shows up as a publish blocker, and the Publish button stays disabled until the blockers are fixed. Warnings flag things worth a look but won’t stop you.
- 1Open the flow and check the toolbar — it counts any publish blockers and warnings.
- 2Work through the blockers one by one — each names the node and rule that need attention.
- 3When the blockers hit zero, hit Publish. The status pill flips to Published and your trigger is live.
Guardrails, on by default
Going live doesn’t mean going reckless. Ravela’s sending engine is compliance-aware out of the box, and none of it needs configuring:
- Messaging window — automated DMs send within Instagram’s allowed reply window, so your account stays inside the rules.
- Rate limiting — delivery is paced to respect Instagram’s per-account hourly limits, even when a post goes viral.
- Opt-outs honored — a contact who sends STOP stops receiving automation immediately, until they opt back in.
Watch the first runs
The proof arrives on the flow’s Runs page: every run with its contact, status, duration, and — if something went sideways — the reason why. Open any run for a step-by-step timeline of exactly which nodes fired.
The Analytics tab watches the bigger picture over time: events, link clicks, and how your flow performs across the days after launch. Give it a day, then look for the pattern — that’s where your first improvement idea comes from.