F5Bot Platform Help
Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.
Ask the user:
-
What do you need help with?
- A) Setting up keyword monitoring (choosing keywords, filtering)
- B) Reducing noise / too many irrelevant alerts
- C) Configuring notifications (email timing, Slack, Discord, webhooks)
- D) Using the API to manage alerts programmatically
- E) RSS/JSON feed setup
- F) AI semantic alerts (Ultra tier)
- G) Plan limits and upgrade decision
- H) Something else — describe it -
Which plan are you on?
- A) Free (200 keywords, 50 hits/day, email only)
- B) Power ($16.99/mo or $14.17/mo annual — 350 keywords, RSS/JSON, scheduled delivery)
- C) Ultra ($69.99/mo or $58.33/mo annual — 1000 keywords, AI alerts, API, Slack/Discord)
- D) Not sure / haven't signed up yet -
What's your goal?
- A) Brand monitoring (track mentions of my product)
- B) Lead generation (find people asking for solutions)
- C) Competitor monitoring
- D) Customer research / market trends
If the user's request already provides context, skip to Step 2.
Step 2 — Route or answer directly
- Multi-platform monitoring (not just Reddit/HN/Lobsters) →
/sales-social-listening [question] - Reddit monitoring with AI comment generation →
/sales-keymentions [question] - Reddit monitoring with competitive intelligence →
/sales-threadlytics [question] - Developer-first monitoring with API/MCP on all plans →
/sales-octolens [question] - Community monitoring across 15+ platforms with API →
/sales-syften [question] - Social listening tool comparison →
/sales-social-listening which tool should I pick
Otherwise, answer directly from the platform reference below.
Step 3 — F5Bot platform reference
Read references/platform-guide.md for the full platform reference — capabilities, pricing, data model, filtering flags, API endpoints, webhook setup, and code examples.
Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.
Step 4 — Actionable guidance
Focus on the user's specific situation:
- Noise reduction — use multi-word keywords with the
wholeflag, addexclude=for false positives, useonly-url=to restrict to specific subreddits, useno-url=to block noisy subreddits - Hit limit management — if hitting 50/day on free, upgrade to Power (1,000/day) or tighten keywords first
- Integration — API and webhooks require Ultra ($69.99/mo or $58.33/mo annual). For cheaper programmatic access, consider Syften (API at €39.95/mo) or RedShip (API at $19/mo)
- AI alerts — Ultra includes 2 semantic alerts that match on meaning, not just keywords. Write natural-language descriptions (50–1,000 chars, up to 5 subreddits each). LLM token usage is billed separately on top of the subscription; the 2-alert limit can be raised on request
If you discover a gotcha or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.
Gotchas
Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and pricing that may change.
- 50 hits/day cap on free tier is brutal for common keywords. If you track "CRM" you'll exhaust the limit in minutes. Use multi-word phrases or upgrade to Power (1,000 hits/day).
- API and webhooks are Ultra-only ($69.99/mo or $58.33/mo annual). Free and Power users have no programmatic access. If you need API access at a lower price, Syften starts at €39.95/mo with API.
- No regex or wildcards. Keywords match exactly as entered (case-insensitive). You cannot use patterns — add each variation as a separate keyword.
- Matches can trigger from URLs and titles, not just body text. If getting unexpected matches, use
in-bodyorin-titleflags (Power+) to restrict where keywords match. only-redditandonly-urlflags are OR-based. If you useonly-reddit only-url=/r/saas, you get ALL Reddit matches plus the subreddit — removeonly-redditto restrict to just that subreddit.- Slack/Discord require Ultra tier. Free and Power users can only receive email alerts. Use webhooks on Ultra to route to Slack/Discord channels.
- Webhook retries stop after 3 failures. If your endpoint goes down, F5Bot will retry (immediate → 5 min → 1 hour → 15 hours), then give up. Monitor webhook delivery logs.
Related skills
/sales-social-listening— Social listening strategy across all platforms — tool comparison, monitoring setup, competitive intel, crisis detection/sales-syften— Syften platform help — fast community monitoring across 15+ platforms with API/webhooks/sales-redditmentions— RedditMentions — cheapest paid Reddit monitoring at €4.49/mo/sales-keymentions— KeyMentions — Reddit monitoring with AI comment generation and auto-publish/sales-octolens— Octolens — developer-first social listening with API/MCP on all plans/sales-threadlytics— Threadlytics — Reddit-specific monitoring with 500M+ indexed conversations/sales-do— Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install:npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do
Examples
Example 1: Set up monitoring for a SaaS product on a budget
User says: "I just launched a project management tool and want to know when people on Reddit ask for recommendations — but I'm on the free plan"
Skill does:
1. Reads platform guide for keyword strategy and filtering
2. Suggests intent-rich keywords: "best project management tool", "project management recommendation", "looking for task manager", competitor names
3. Recommends using only-url=/r/productivity only-url=/r/SaaS only-url=/r/Entrepreneur to restrict to relevant subreddits
4. Adds exclude=minecraft exclude=game to remove gaming false positives
5. Warns about the 50 hits/day limit and suggests monitoring keyword hit rates
Result: Targeted monitoring on free tier with noise reduction
Example 2: Push F5Bot alerts to a CRM via webhooks
User says: "How do I send F5Bot alerts to my internal tool automatically?"
Skill does:
1. Confirms Ultra plan required for webhooks and API
2. Reads API reference for webhook payload format
3. Shows webhook setup: configure URL in API Dashboard, receive JSON POST with alert data
4. Provides example payload and shows how to parse content_html, url, tags fields
5. Notes retry policy (stops after 3 failures) and suggests monitoring the webhook log
Result: Working webhook integration pushing alerts to user's pipeline
Example 3: Free tier noise is overwhelming
User says: "I'm tracking 'automation' on F5Bot but getting 50 alerts before noon and they're all irrelevant"
Skill does:
1. Explains 50 hits/day free limit means common words exhaust quota fast
2. Suggests narrowing: "marketing automation tool" or "automation for small business" instead of "automation"
3. Adds exclude=home exclude=industrial exclude=factory flags
4. Recommends only-url= to restrict to business subreddits only
5. If still insufficient, suggests Power plan ($14.17/mo) for 1,000 hits/day and in-body flag
Result: Noise reduced, hit limit managed
Troubleshooting
Alerts not arriving
Symptom: Set up keywords but no email alerts received
Cause: No matches yet (F5Bot only emails when matches exist), email in spam, or keyword is too specific
Solution: Post your keyword to r/test — expect an email within minutes. Check spam/promotions folder. If using a common word that should match frequently, verify the keyword wasn't rejected as too common (free tier restriction). Upgrade to Power to remove common word restrictions.
Hitting 50 hits/day limit before noon
Symptom: Stop receiving alerts partway through the day on the free plan
Cause: Keywords are too broad, matching high-volume terms across all of Reddit
Solution: Use multi-word phrases with the whole flag. Add exclude= for recurring false positives. Use only-url= to restrict to 3-5 relevant subreddits. If legitimate volume exceeds 50/day, upgrade to Power ($16.99/mo or $14.17/mo annual, 1,000 hits/day) or Ultra ($69.99/mo or $58.33/mo annual, 1,000 hits/day).
Webhook deliveries failing
Symptom: Webhook URL configured but alerts aren't arriving at your endpoint
Cause: Endpoint returning non-2xx responses, timeout, or SSL issues
Solution: Check the webhook delivery log in the API Dashboard for error codes. Ensure your endpoint accepts POST requests with JSON body and returns 200 within 10 seconds. F5Bot retries on failure (immediate → 5 min → 1 hour → 15 hours) but stops after 3 failures. Fix the issue and re-enable the webhook.
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