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How a rule works

A rule has two halves: a trigger that decides which comments to act on, and an action that says what to do when a comment matches. CommentShark watches your comments in the background and runs every active rule against every incoming comment.

Every rule reads like a sentence

When [match type] [match value], [action] [execution mode].

Each bracketed slot is a chip — click it to pick or type a value. There are no forms and no wizard steps; you build a rule by filling in the sentence.

The four chips

Match type

Text Match checks for an exact phrase or pattern (contains, starts with, regex). AI Classification (Plus) lets you describe the kind of comment in plain English — "asking about pricing", "sounds frustrated" — and the AI decides. Rule of thumb: if you can write down the exact words, use Text Match. If you're trying to capture an idea, use AI Classification.

Match value

The phrase, pattern, or description you're matching against. For Text Match that's the literal words; for AI Classification it's your description — e.g. "Comments asking about pricing, plans, or how much the product costs." The more specific you are, the fewer false positives.

Action

Reply with a preset (a fixed template), Reply with AI (Plus — a unique on-brand reply per comment), Hold for Review (hides the comment and queues it for your approval), Delete (requires channel owner permissions), or Notify me by email.

Execution mode

Automatic runs the action for you — good for high-confidence rules like templated replies or obvious spam deletes. After I approve queues every match so you can review before anything posts — safer for AI-generated replies or anything hard to undo.

Test before you enable

The editor has a built-in tester: paste a sample comment, hit Test, and see whether it matches, why it matched, and what reply would be generated — without posting anything to YouTube. Use it every time you build a new rule.