What you'll do (5 minutes)
- Connect an AI provider in WordPress core (Settings → Connectors).
- Open ReplyMind in the admin sidebar.
- Pick a provider, model, tone, length and language.
- Choose Suggestion mode (recommended) or Auto mode.
- Enable the plugin and save.
Step 1 — Connect a provider in WordPress core
In your WordPress admin, go to Settings → Connectors. This screen belongs to WordPress core, not to ReplyMind, and is shared by every AI-aware plugin on the site — set it up once.
- Choose a provider: OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google. You can add more than one.
- Paste an API key from that provider's console:
- OpenAI — platform.openai.com/account/api-keys (keys start with
sk-). - Anthropic — console.anthropic.com (keys start with
sk-ant-). - Google — aistudio.google.com (Gemini API key).
- OpenAI — platform.openai.com/account/api-keys (keys start with
- Save. WordPress verifies the connection.
Step 2 — Open ReplyMind
Click ReplyMind in the admin sidebar — it's a top-level item just below Comments, with the chat-bubble icon. After activation you may already be here, with a welcome banner offering a five-step guided tour. Take it or skip it; the banner disappears once dismissed.
The Core Settings panel confirms that the WordPress AI Client was detected. If it says AI features are disabled, check that WP_AI_SUPPORT isn't defined as false in wp-config.php and that no plugin filters wp_supports_ai() to false.
Step 3 — Pick a provider and model
AI Provider — OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, or Google Gemini. Only providers you configured in Step 1 will actually work.
Model — the dropdown filters to the selected provider:
| OpenAI | Anthropic | |
|---|---|---|
gpt-5-mini (recommended) | claude-sonnet-4-6 (recommended) | gemini-2.5-flash (recommended) |
gpt-5-nano (cheapest) | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (cheapest) | gemini-2.5-flash-lite (cheapest) |
gpt-5 (best quality) | claude-opus-4-8 (best quality) | gemini-3-pro (best quality) |
gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini | claude-opus-4-7, claude-opus-4-6 | gemini-2.5-pro |
gpt-4-turbo, gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo |
For most blogs, GPT-5 Mini, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Gemini 2.5 Flash is the right balance of quality and cost. If the model prefix doesn't match the provider (gpt- / claude- / gemini-), the screen shows a mismatch warning.
Step 4 — Pick a reply mode
- Suggestion Mode (default, recommended) — every reply is saved as a draft. You review it on the Comments screen, edit if needed, and publish in one click. Optionally turn on email approval so authors can approve from their inbox.
- Auto Reply Mode — replies are posted automatically as soon as a new comment is approved. Use only after you trust the reply quality. Reply scheduling can delay these by 1–168 hours so they feel human.
Step 5 — Pick a tone, length, and language
- Reply Tone — Professional (default), Friendly, Casual, Empathetic, Formal, Concise.
- Response Length — Short (2–3 sentences, default), Medium, Detailed.
- Reply Language — Auto-detect (default), or fix to English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, or Chinese.
Step 6 — (Optional) Customise the system prompt
The System Prompt field is included with every AI generation. The default is:
A more brand-specific prompt usually produces better results:
Step 7 — Enable the plugin
Tick Enable Plugin and click Save Changes.
That's it. The next time a new comment is approved on your site, the plugin will:
- Schedule a background job (within ~10 seconds, depending on your site's WP-Cron setup).
- Run per-post overrides, sentiment detection and Reply Rules, if enabled (in that order).
- Generate a reply through the WordPress AI Client using your configured provider.
- Save it as a draft (Suggestion mode) or post it (Auto mode).
Test it
- Go to any post with an existing approved comment.
- Hover the comment row in Comments.
- Click Generate AI Reply in the row actions.
- The AI Reply column shows Draft Ready (Suggestion mode) or Published (Auto mode). If you turned on sentiment or a rule flagged it, you'll also see a sentiment badge or a Flagged pill.
- In Suggestion mode, click Edit & Publish to review the draft, edit it, and post it.
Go further
Everything under Advanced Settings is optional and off by default. When you're ready: Reply Rules, Sentiment detection, Scheduling & email approval, Per-post & per-taxonomy overrides, Analytics, WooCommerce reviews, Multisite.
Next step
→ Daily workflow — how to handle drafts as new comments come in.
Troubleshooting
If something didn't work, check:
- ReplyMind → Logs for the exact error.
- The Troubleshooting guide.