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

# How Cura protects customers from over-messaging

> Cura's workflows are built so your customers never get spammed. Several safety guardrails check every automated message before it goes out — here's what protects your customers and what you can adjust.

Cura's workflows are built so your customers never get spammed. Before any automated message leaves a workflow, Cura runs a series of safety checks. If a check decides the message would be too much, too soon, or unwelcome, the run is quietly stopped — and you can see exactly why in the workflow logs.

In short: your customers get the right message at the right time, and never a flood of them.

<Note>
  These guardrails apply to **workflows** — Cura's automated follow-ups (reminders, check-ins, re-engagement). They run automatically; most businesses never need to touch them. This page explains what they do, and the few things you *can* adjust.
</Note>

***

## The safety checks, in plain language

Every time a workflow is about to message a customer, Cura runs these checks first. Any one of them can stop the message before it's sent.

### A limit on how many automated messages a customer gets

Cura caps how many automated messages one customer can receive across **all** your workflows. By default, that's **2 messages within a rolling 7-day window**. Once a customer has received that many, further workflow messages to them are held back until the window clears — so overlapping workflows can't pile up on the same person.

<Check>This is the main backstop against spam: no matter how many workflows you have running, a single customer won't be over-messaged.</Check>

### Quiet hours — nothing fires in the middle of the night

Cura won't send automated messages during **quiet hours**. By default, that's **9:00 PM to 8:00 AM** in your workspace's timezone. A message that would land inside quiet hours is either **held until quiet hours end** (and then sent, with a small random delay so a batch doesn't all arrive at once) or **skipped**, depending on how the workflow is set up.

<Tip>
  Set your workspace timezone so quiet hours line up with your customers' local night. If a timezone isn't set, Cura falls back to UTC, which may not match Thailand — see *What you can adjust* below.
</Tip>

### A cooldown between back-to-back workflows

If one workflow has already messaged a customer in the last **5 minutes**, Cura holds back any *other* workflow that's about to message the same person. This stops two workflows with overlapping timing from hitting the same customer within minutes of each other.

### It backs off when a human just replied

If someone on your team has personally messaged a customer recently — within the last **4 hours** by default — Cura pauses automated messages to that customer. The reasoning is simple: a real person is already handling the conversation, so an automated follow-up would only get in the way.

### It stops the moment a customer replies

If a customer replies while a workflow is mid-sequence, Cura **cancels the rest of that workflow** for them automatically. Your automation never talks over a live conversation, and a customer who's already responding won't keep getting scheduled follow-ups.

<Check>A reply from the customer is always the strongest signal — Cura treats it as "the human conversation has started" and steps aside.</Check>

### It honours opt-outs across every channel

If a customer is marked as **opted out**, Cura stops *all* automated outbound to them — on every channel they're on, not just one. The workflow that tried to reach them is logged as skipped with the reason **Contact opted out**, so there's a clear record.

***

## Each guardrail in one view

| Guardrail                | What it does                                                | Default                                |
| ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Per-customer message cap | Limits automated messages per customer across all workflows | 2 per 7 days                           |
| Quiet hours              | No automated sends overnight                                | 9:00 PM – 8:00 AM (workspace timezone) |
| Cross-workflow cooldown  | Stops a second workflow firing right after the first        | 5 minutes                              |
| Recent-human back-off    | Pauses automation after a teammate messages the customer    | 4 hours                                |
| Cancel-on-reply          | Stops the rest of a workflow when the customer replies      | Always on                              |
| Opt-out                  | Halts all automated outbound to an opted-out customer       | Always on, every channel               |

<Note>
  Internal-only steps — actions like adding a tag or creating a task that **don't message the customer** — aren't subject to these limits, because there's nothing for the customer to receive.
</Note>

***

## Seeing the guardrails at work

When a guardrail stops a message, it isn't lost silently — the run is recorded so you always know what happened and why.

* Open a workflow's **Logs** tab to see its runs.
* A run that a guardrail stopped shows as **Skipped**, with a plain-language reason (for example, *Contact opted out*, or that a recent message or cooldown held it back).

See [Monitoring workflow runs and analytics](/workflows/monitor-runs-and-analytics) for how to read the logs.

***

## What you can adjust

The defaults are tuned to protect your customers, and most businesses leave them as they are. A few things are worth knowing:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Set your workspace timezone">
    Quiet hours are measured in your **workspace timezone**. Setting it correctly is the single most important thing you can do, so "overnight" means overnight for *your* customers. Without it, quiet hours are measured in UTC.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Adjust quiet hours and frequency for your business">
    Your workspace's frequency and quiet-hours settings (the per-customer cap, the quiet-hours window, and whether quiet-hours messages are held or skipped) can be tuned to fit how your business communicates. If you'd like these changed from the defaults above, talk to your Cura contact.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Make an urgent workflow exempt from quiet hours">
    Some messages genuinely shouldn't wait — an appointment reminder for an early-morning visit, for instance. A workflow can be set to ignore quiet hours so it sends whenever its trigger fires. Use this sparingly, and only for time-critical messages.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Turning a guardrail down or off increases how often a customer can be messaged. Loosen these only when you have a clear reason, and watch your workflow logs afterwards to make sure customers aren't being over-messaged.
</Warning>

***

### Related articles

* [What workflows do](/workflows/what-workflows-are)
* [Enabling and configuring a workflow](/workflows/enable-and-configure)
* [Scoping a workflow to specific channels](/workflows/scope-to-channels)
* [Monitoring workflow runs and analytics](/workflows/monitor-runs-and-analytics)