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How Robin works

Robin connects to your Close CRM organization and watches for new leads that match filters you define. When a matching lead appears, Robin runs the Actions you've configured on it — assigning the lead round-robin to a teammate, triggering a Workflow, or both.

You set this up with two objects:

• Lead Lists are the operational unit. Each one has a filter (which leads qualify) and one or more Actions (what to do with each match). Lead Lists are top-level — find them in the sidebar.
• Groups are ordered rosters of Close users used by the Assign a Lead action. One Group can power many Lead Lists.

Robin polls Close every 5 minutes. Every action it takes lands in the Activity Log so you always have a full audit trail.

Lead Lists

A Lead List is "when these leads appear in Close, do these things." It's the heart of Robin — you'll spend most of your time here.

Filter

The filter field accepts a Close Advanced Filter JSON object — the same query format Close uses internally for its search. Build the filter in Close's search UI, then paste the resulting query JSON into Robin. Robin passes this filter to the Close API to find matching leads.

Actions

Each Lead List runs one or more Actions on every matching lead. You can enable either Action, or both. At least one must be enabled for the list to do anything.

Action: Assign a Lead

Distributes the lead round-robin to a teammate. When enabled, you configure:

• Group — which roster to draw the next assignee from.
• User custom field — the Lead-level User-type custom field Robin writes the assignee's Close user ID into.
• Overwrite existing values — if the field is already set on a lead, overwrite it. When unchecked, leads with an existing value are skipped.

The Group's round-robin pointer advances after every successful assignment. If you don't have a Group yet, the form lets you create one inline without leaving the Lead List page.

Action: Trigger a Workflow

Enrolls the lead's first contact in a Close Workflow. When enabled, you configure:

• Workflow — pick one of your Close Workflows. Robin only lists Workflows that can be manually triggered on Leads (Workflows on a schedule are run by Close itself, not by Robin).
• Run workflow as — the Close user the Workflow "runs as." Robin uses this user's connected email account to send email steps. Close uses this user as the actor for other step types (SMS, calls, tasks) according to its own rules — check Close's Workflows documentation for the exact behavior per step type.

When Assign a Lead is also enabled, the default Run-as is "Use the assigned member" — each lead's Workflow runs as whoever Robin just assigned the lead to. For workflow-only Lead Lists you must pick a specific user.

Statuses

• Active — Robin polls this list every 5 minutes and runs the configured Actions on new matches.
• Paused — Polling is suspended. No actions will run until you resume.

Seeding

When a Lead List is first activated — and again whenever you change its filter or resume it from paused — Robin runs a seed step. It fetches every lead currently matching the filter and marks them as "already seen," so only leads that appear after that moment will be acted on. This prevents Robin from retroactively assigning or enrolling leads that were already in Close before the list existed.

Groups

A Group is an ordered list of Close users who receive leads in turn. Groups are consumed by the Assign a Lead Action — a single Group can be reused across many Lead Lists, and the round-robin pointer is shared across all of them so leads stay evenly distributed.

Members

Each member maps to a Close user. Members have two states:

• Active — eligible to receive the next lead.
• Inactive — skipped entirely; does not advance the round-robin pointer.

Only active members count toward the rotation order. Toggle a member's status at any time from the Group edit page.

Next up

The Group detail page shows which member is Next up — whoever will receive the very next assignment from any Lead List that uses this Group. The pointer advances automatically after each assignment.

Used by Lead Lists

The Group detail page lists every Lead List that currently uses this Group via its Assign action, along with status and last-checked timestamp. Use this to see at a glance what's flowing through a Group.

Leads assigned count

The "Leads Assigned" column on the Group detail page shows a lifetime count of how many leads each member has received through Robin — a running total across all Lead Lists that use this Group and all time.

Assignment engine

Robin's background scheduler runs every 5 minutes and visits every active Lead List across all organizations. For each list, it:

1. Queries Close for leads matching the filter that were created after the last check.
2. Drops any leads that were captured in the initial seed (so they're never retroactively acted on).
3. For each remaining new lead, runs the enabled Actions:
   • If Assign a Lead is on: picks the next active Group member, writes their Close user ID into the configured custom field, and advances the pointer.
   • If Trigger a Workflow is on: resolves the Run-as user (configured user, or the just-assigned member), looks up their connected email account, and subscribes the lead's first contact to the Workflow.
4. Records the event in the Activity Log with whichever combination ran.
5. Updates Last Checked on the Lead List.

You can also kick off an immediate check using the Check now button on a Lead List detail page — this runs the same logic outside the 5-minute schedule.

Activity Log

The Activity Log is a time-ordered record of every action Robin has taken for your organization — assignments, workflow triggers, or both. It shows:

• When — relative time (e.g. "6m ago"). Hover for the exact timestamp in your local timezone.
• Lead — the Close lead name, linking directly to the lead in Close.
• Assigned To — the Close user who received the lead (— for workflow-only events).
• Workflow Triggered — the Workflow name, linking to the specific run in Close (— for assignment-only events).
• Lead List — which Lead List produced the event.
• Group — the Group used by the Assign action (— for workflow-only events).

You can filter by timeframe, Group, Lead List, or assigned user, and search by lead name or lead ID. The log is infinite-scrolling and loads 25 records at a time.

Organizations & users

Sign in

Robin uses Close's OAuth 2.0 flow for authentication — there are no separate Robin passwords. Clicking "Sign in with Close" redirects you to Close, where you authorize Robin to access your account. Once authorized, you're returned to Robin and your Close organization is linked automatically.

Roles

• Admin — can create/edit/delete Groups and Lead Lists, manage team members, approve or suspend users, and access all data in the org.
• Member — can view Groups, Lead Lists, and the Activity Log, but cannot create, edit, or delete anything.

The first person to sign in from a Close organization becomes that org's admin automatically. Additional admins can be promoted from the Team page.

Team management

Admins can access the Team page from the sidebar footer. From there you can see all users in your org, change their role, and approve or suspend access.

Common situations

Switching organizations

If your Close account belongs to multiple organizations (e.g. you're an admin of a client's org as well as your own), Robin creates a separate user record for each org. The org switcher in the sidebar footer lets you toggle between them.

To add another organization: open the org switcher and click + Add another organization. This starts a fresh OAuth flow with Close, and you can authorize a different org on the Close side.

Pausing and resuming a Lead List

Pausing a Lead List immediately stops Robin from polling it. Any leads that arrived while the list was paused will not be retroactively assigned.

When you resume a paused list, Robin runs a fresh seed: it fetches all leads currently matching the filter and marks them as already seen. Polling then continues from that point forward — only leads that appear after the resume moment will be assigned.

Changing the filter on an active Lead List

Saving a new filter on an active Lead List triggers an automatic re-seed. Robin discards the old seen-lead set, fetches all leads currently matching the new filter, marks them as seen, and then polls going forward. This prevents a filter change from suddenly causing a flood of existing leads to be assigned.

Robin shows a confirmation dialog when you save filter changes on an active or paused list so you're always aware this re-seed will happen.

Run-as user has no email account

To trigger a Workflow, Robin needs the Run-as user's connected email account in Close (it supplies the sender_account_id, sender_name, and sender_email to the sequence subscription). If that user hasn't connected a sending email account in Close, Robin can't trigger the Workflow for that lead.

What happens:

• If Assign a Lead is also enabled and succeeded — the assignment is still recorded; only the Workflow trigger is skipped. The error is logged on the server.
• If Trigger a Workflow is the only Action — no Activity Log entry is created for that lead. Robin moves on to the next one.

To fix: have the Run-as user connect an email account in Close (Settings → Connected Accounts), or change the Lead List's Run-as to a different user who already has one.

New users joining an organization

When a new user from your Close org signs into Robin for the first time, their account is created in a Pending state. Pending users have read-only access — they can browse Groups, Lead Lists, and the Activity Log, but cannot create, edit, or delete anything until an admin approves them.

A yellow Pending approval notice appears in the sidebar to remind the user of their read-only status.

Admins will see a red badge on the Team link in the sidebar footer showing the number of pending users. Go to Team → find the pending user → set their role and approve them.

Setting a member to inactive

Marking a Group member as Inactive removes them from the rotation immediately. The next assignment will go to the next active member in order — the round-robin pointer is not reset.

When you reactivate a member, they re-enter the rotation at their original position. They will receive the next lead when the pointer cycles back to their position. No leads are retroactively redistributed.

Support

Robin is an independent tool and is not officially affiliated with or supported by Close. For help with any issues, questions, or feedback, email nick@closekit.com.

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