Screen and Approve Community Join Requests Automatically

A new workflow trigger fires whenever someone asks to join your community group, so you no longer read every request by hand. You can branch the workflow on the answers applicants gave to your membership questions, and even have AI check whether those answers look genuine. Members see no change at their end.

What is the new trigger called?

The trigger is Requested to Join Group, and you add it to a workflow like any other. It fires the moment a user submits a request to join a community group, which lets you build automation around the whole join request lifecycle. It fires on requests only, so your group must have request-based access switched on.

Can I route requests based on what applicants wrote?

Yes. Filter the trigger by Group and by Membership Question Responses, which are the actual answers people type when requesting access. Once you pick a group, every membership question configured for that group appears as a filter field. That lets one workflow send different applicants down different paths based on what they said.

How do I set up automatic screening?

You pass the membership answers into a GPT prompt inside the workflow, then branch on what it returns. A typical use is asking it whether the answers look like spam, gibberish or low-effort filler, then approving the good ones and sending the rest for a human look.

1. Create a new workflow and add the Requested to Join Group trigger.
2. Select the target group. The membership questions for that group appear automatically as filters.
3. Add a GPT action to evaluate the responses, for example to detect spam.
4. Add an If/Else condition that branches on the GPT output or on the response values.
5. Add your actions, such as Grant Group Access, sending a welcome message, or tagging the contact.

Does this change what applicants see?

No. Nothing changes on the member-facing side and the join request experience stays exactly as it was. All the screening and routing happens behind the scenes, so applicants simply get a faster answer.

Who should set this up?

Any community using membership questions to qualify applicants, especially once request volume has outgrown daily manual review. It suits paid or gated communities where you need to keep control of who gets in but cannot afford to read every submission. Note that GPT actions carry a charge for each time they run, so factor that into high-volume groups.

You will find the Requested to Join Group trigger in the workflow builder when you add a new trigger.