Send an Automatic Reply from Your Form with Formidable Forms and AI
Everyone who fills in your form gets a reply at once that thanks them (by first name when the form has a name field) and repeats what they picked.
Prerequisites
A site connected to WPVibe running Formidable Forms 7.0 or newer (tested on the free 7.0) on WordPress 6.9 or newer, with an administrator account. Formidable's AI access must be on: Formidable > Global Settings > MCP > Enable the Formidable MCP server. A form with an email field.
My site runs Formidable Forms. Add an automatic reply to my form [form name] that goes to the person who filled it in. It should thank them by first name, repeat [what they picked, for example the villa and the number of guests] and say [when we reply, for example within one working day]. Replies to it should come to [my email address].
1. Run get_ability_info for each Formidable ability this uses: formidable-forms/list-forms, formidable-forms/get-form, formidable-forms/list-fields, formidable-forms/list-form-actions, formidable-forms/create-form-action and formidable-forms/update-form-action. If one is not found, Formidable is keeping its abilities off: tell me to update Formidable Forms to 7.0 or newer if it is older, then switch on Enable the Formidable MCP server under Formidable > Global Settings > MCP and click Update (I can switch it off again afterwards), and stop. MY_EMAIL below means the reply address from my request above. Square-bracket codes inside the JSON below are Formidable shortcodes: keep them as they are.
2. Find the form with formidable-forms/list-forms, page_size 100 (ask me if more than one matches), then run formidable-forms/list-fields with its id. Find the email field (type email); if there is none, stop and tell me. In Formidable's emails a field is its id in square brackets, for example [27], and a name field's first name is the id followed by show=first inside the brackets, for example [22 show=first]. That only works on a field of type name: if the form has none (Formidable's own Contact Us template uses plain text fields for the name), leave the name out of the email, thank them without it, and tell me. Apart from the first name, repeat only answers the visitor picked (select, radio, checkbox or number fields), never text they typed: this email goes to whatever address the visitor typed, so typed text would let a bot send its own words from my site.
3. Run formidable-forms/list-form-actions with the form id and type email. If an email already goes to the email field (its email_to is that field's id in square brackets), show it and ask whether to change that one instead.
4. Check the form is protected from bots, because a bot that fills it in gets this reply at whatever address it typed. It counts as protected if run_wp_cli option pluck frm_options honeypot returns 1 (Formidable's honeypot, for every form); or step 2 lists a captcha field and the captcha is really set up (run_wp_cli option pluck frm_options active_captcha gives recaptcha, hcaptcha or turnstile, and the matching key, frm_options pubkey, hcaptcha_pubkey or turnstile_pubkey, is not empty); or formidable-forms/get-form shows options antispam 1; or its akismet option is set and run_wp_cli plugin list --status=active shows Akismet. If none holds, tell me before going on and suggest switching on the honeypot under Formidable > Global Settings > Captcha/Spam.
5. Draft the subject and the message (short HTML paragraphs in my words, with the field shortcodes from step 2). Show me exactly what a person will get, with the shortcodes filled in from an example, and wait for my yes.
6. On my yes, run formidable-forms/create-form-action with form_id, type email, post_title "Auto-reply to visitor" and post_content {"email_to": "EMAIL_FIELD_ID", "reply_to": "MY_EMAIL", "email_subject": "SUBJECT", "email_message": "MESSAGE", "event": ["create"]}, where EMAIL_FIELD_ID is the email field's id in square brackets.
7. Read it back with formidable-forms/list-form-actions and confirm its post_status is publish. Ask me to fill in the form with my own email address and check my inbox and spam folder. Formidable's free version keeps no email log, so if nothing arrives, run run_wp_cli plugin list --status=active and tell me whether a mailer plugin (WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, Post SMTP or similar) is active. To switch the reply off later, run formidable-forms/update-form-action with its id and post_status draft.
Skip pasting the full prompt. Drop this into your AI on a site that already has WPVibe:
Run the “Send an Automatic Reply from Your Form with Formidable Forms and AI” recipe from the WPVibe cookbook on my connected site.
Someone fills in your form and hears nothing. They don’t know if it went through, so they send it again or ask someone else. A short reply that arrives at once, with their name and what they asked for, tells them it worked and when you will answer. Formidable can send one, but it means a second email action with field shortcodes to look up.
The AI reads your form to find the email field and the answers worth repeating (it keeps what people typed down to their first name, which limits what a bot can make the reply say), checks the form has spam protection, and shows you the exact subject and message before saving anything. On your yes it adds the reply to that form, with replies coming back to the address you choose.
Say which form and what the reply should promise. It starts with the next entry, so fill the form in yourself to see it. Formidable’s free version keeps no email log; if the test never arrives, the AI checks whether your site has a mailer plugin.
Outcome
The form sends each person who fills it in a reply that thanks them, by first name when it has a name field, repeats their choices, and sends replies back to the address you chose.