Folders are labels you put on contacts to group them: by funnel stage, by what they've bought, by how they found you, or anything else that matters to your business.
Once a contact is in a folder, you can use that folder to filter your inbox, target campaigns, and trigger automations. A contact can be in several folders at once.
Creating a folder
Go to your inbox and click Create folder at the bottom of the folders list in the left sidebar. You can also reach folder management through the gear icon next to FOLDERS, then Manage folders, or add and manage folders from the Contacts page.
Give the folder a name and pick one of the seven colours (the colour shows on the folder's tag and tab so you can spot it at a glance). Click Save and the folder appears in the sidebar right away.
Free plan accounts can create up to 10 folders. Paid plans have no folder limit.
Adding contacts to a folder
There are four ways to add a contact to a folder:
By hand from a conversation: open any conversation, then click Add to folder next to the contact's folder tags at the top of the thread and pick a folder. The tag appears immediately.
In bulk from the inbox: click Select in the conversation list, choose the contacts you want, then click Move to folder at the bottom and check the folders to add.
Automatically with a scenario: use the Add or remove folder action inside a scenario. When a contact reaches that step, Inrō moves them in or out of the folder. See Contact Actions: Folders, Properties & Data Collection.
Automatically with the AI Agent: configure the agent to add a contact to a folder when it detects an intent, for example moving a ready-to-buy contact into "Hot Lead" on the spot.
Removing a contact from a folder
Open the conversation and click the folder tag you want to remove from the contact's header. Or use the Add or remove folder action in a scenario to remove them automatically at a certain step. In bulk, use Select in the inbox, then Move to folder, and uncheck the folder.
Using a folder to trigger a scenario
Folders and scenarios connect in both directions. A scenario can add a contact to a folder, and adding a contact to a folder can start a scenario.
To start a scenario from a folder, choose the A contact is added to a folder trigger in your scenario and pick the folder to watch. Whenever a contact lands in that folder, by hand, in a bulk action, or from another scenario, this scenario fires for them.
This is useful for welcome sequences and handoffs. For example, your sales team drops a contact into a "Hot Lead" folder and a follow-up DM sequence kicks off on its own.
⚠️ Only adding a contact to a folder fires automation. Removing a contact from a folder does not trigger anything. For the full trigger list, see Triggers: The Complete Reference.
Filtering and targeting with folders
Filter the inbox: click any folder name in the left sidebar to show only conversations with contacts in that folder. Click Inbox at the top to return to all conversations.
Target a campaign: when building a campaign, expand Folders under Send campaign to and pick one. You can also exclude folders under Don't send campaign to.
Exclude from automations: scenarios and the AI Agent can skip contacts who are in chosen folders, which is handy for keeping flows away from existing customers.
Folder notifications
Each folder has its own notification setting, so you can get a heads-up when conversations land in the folders that matter. Under the inbox gear icon, open Manage folder notifications and pick a frequency per folder:
No notifications (the default)
Real time
Daily recap
Weekly recap
Deleting a folder
To delete a folder, open its menu and choose Delete. Your conversations are safe: deleting a folder removes the label from contacts but keeps every conversation in your inbox.
Folders vs segments
Folders are fixed labels you assign and remove yourself. Segments are dynamic: they show whoever matches a set of filters right now. Use folders to track funnel stage or relationship type, and use segments to find everyone with a given property or engagement pattern. For when to use which, and how to combine them, see Segmentation & Filters: Build Smart Audiences.
🐾 Netsuke's Tips
Name folders after funnel stages, like "New Lead," "Qualified," "Customer," and "VIP." That serves you better than "People who commented" because you can build campaign sequences around funnel position.
The "A contact is added to a folder" trigger is one of the most underused features in Inrō. Any time your team manually qualifies a contact, you can kick off the next step automatically.
If you find yourself making lots of similar folders ("Lead Jan," "Lead Feb"), that's a sign a folder isn't the right tool. Use a date custom property instead and filter by it in a segment.
What's next?
Learn how to build segments and use filters to create dynamic audience groups from your contact data.