Understand and configure Autopilot
Learn what Phishing Autopilot does, read the Autopilot overview, and tune frequency, schedule, recipients, skip-next-cycle, and notification contacts when self-management is granted.
Autopilot runs your phishing program for you. Instead of building a new campaign each month, Autopilot sends recurring phishing simulations — sometimes called the Campaign of the Month (COTM) — on a cadence you pick: Monthly, Bi-monthly, or Quarterly. You visit the Autopilot pages to see what's running, check what's coming next, and (if your service provider grants it) fine-tune frequency, timing, recipients, and who gets notified.
This page covers what Autopilot does, how to read the Overview, and how to edit Phishing preferences. Training Autopilot is coming soon — it appears on the Overview but isn't reachable yet.
Before you start
Prerequisites
- You're signed in to Hook as an org admin, with the right organization selected in the org switcher if you manage more than one. Autopilot pages reload automatically when you switch orgs.
- Autopilot is turned on by your service provider, not by you. There is no enable toggle in the org portal. If Autopilot is off, contact your provider to have it enabled.
- Editing preferences requires self-management. Even when Autopilot is active, your provider decides whether you can change settings. If self-management isn't granted, every setting is visible but read-only.
Read the Autopilot overview
From the left nav, open Autopilot. The Overview is your at-a-glance status board for both programs.
The hero shows two program readouts side by side — Phishing and Training — each with a status word and a short caption:
- Off — the program isn't enabled (Not enabled).
- Active — running on the displayed cadence. The caption is the bare cadence word (Monthly, and so on). If your provider manages the settings, it reads Monthly · managed by provider instead.
- Paused — temporarily halted by your provider (Resume from settings). See Pause and resume below.
- Skipping — active, but the next cycle is set to skip (Monthly · next cycle paused).
Click the Phishing readout to jump straight to its preferences.
Training Autopilot is coming soon
The Training readout shows a Soon / Coming soon state and is not clickable today. Only Phishing Autopilot is live. The rest of this page is about the Phishing program.
Below the hero, the Upcoming strip lists the next up-to-three scheduled phishing simulations — each with its send date, campaign name, template, and status. If nothing is scheduled, you'll see No campaigns scheduled. Click a row to open that campaign's preview, or All previews to open the full preview list. See View campaign previews for what each preview contains.
If Autopilot isn't active for your org, a banner reads Autopilot is not yet active for your organization. Contact your service provider to turn it on. If some settings are provider-managed, a second banner notes you can view but not edit them.
Configure Phishing preferences
Open Autopilot → Phishing (or click the Phishing readout on the Overview). What you can do here depends on your org's state:
- Not active — the page shows Phishing Autopilot is not active and a prompt to contact your provider. There are no settings to change.
- Read-only — Autopilot is on but self-management isn't granted. A banner reads These settings are managed by your service provider. Contact them to make changes. Every value is visible; all inputs are disabled and the Save buttons are hidden.
- Full edit — Autopilot is on and self-management is granted. You can change the settings below.
The sections below assume you're in the Full edit state.
Set the frequency
Under Frequency, choose how often your org receives Autopilot campaigns from the dropdown: Monthly, Bi-monthly, or Quarterly.
Frequency saves on change
Frequency has no Save button — picking a value saves it immediately and shows a Frequency updated toast. If the save fails, the dropdown reverts to its previous value.
Tune the campaign schedule
The Campaign Schedule card controls how long each campaign runs:
- Drip length (days) — how many days to spread the send across. Accepts 1 to 14; the default is 1 day (send all at once).
- Track length (days) — how many days to keep tracking link clicks after sending. Accepts 1 to 14; the default is 3 days.
Both fields clamp to the 1–14 range as you type. Click Save Campaign Schedule to apply; a Campaign schedule updated toast confirms.
Choose recipients
Under Audience, pick who receives Autopilot campaigns:
- All users — everyone in your organization.
- Specific groups — just the groups you check.
- Exclude selected groups — everyone except the groups you check.
If you pick a group-based mode, Hook lists your org's groups with a member count on each. Tick the groups to include or exclude. With a group mode selected, you must check at least one group — Please select at least one group appears and the Save button stays disabled until you do.
Click Save changes to apply; the page reloads your saved preferences and shows a Recipient settings updated toast.
Set the preview notification contacts
The Notification Contacts card has two lists. Only the first is functional today:
- Preview Notification Contacts — email addresses that receive a preview before each campaign launches. Type an address and press Enter or click Add; it appears as a chip you can remove with the ×. Addresses are lowercased, must be a valid email, can't be duplicated, and the list is capped at 50 contacts.
- Report Contacts — marked Coming soon and not yet editable. It's shown for context only; campaign performance reports aren't wired to it yet.
Click Save Notification Contacts to apply; a Notification contacts updated toast confirms.
Pause, resume, and skip
The only scheduling control you can change yourself is Skip Next Cycle. Use the toggle in that card to skip just the next campaign — the label flips between Receiving next cycle and Will skip next cycle, and Autopilot automatically resumes the cycle after. Toggling it shows a Will skip next cycle or Resumed toast.
Pause and resume are provider-managed
A full Pause (the Paused state on the Overview) is set by your service provider, not from these pages. If your program shows Paused and you want it running again, contact your provider — Skip Next Cycle only affects the single upcoming campaign, not a longer pause.
Common pitfalls
- There's no "enable Autopilot" button. Turning the program on or off, and granting self-management, are both provider actions. If the page reads not active or every field is disabled, that's by design — contact your provider.
- Read-only means read-only. When self-management isn't granted you can still see every setting, but inputs are disabled and Save buttons don't appear. Don't expect changes to stick.
- Frequency saves instantly; the other cards don't. Frequency applies the moment you pick it, but Campaign Schedule, Recipient Settings, and Notification Contacts each need their Save button. Skip Next Cycle applies immediately on toggle.
- Report Contacts does nothing yet. It's labeled Coming soon. Only Preview Notification Contacts actually sends mail today.
- A group mode with no groups won't save. If you switch to Only users in selected groups or Exclude selected groups, you must check at least one group before Save unlocks.
Related
View campaign previews
Review the upcoming Autopilot simulations queued for your organization before they send.
Run a phishing campaign
Launch a one-off simulation by hand when you want a campaign outside the Autopilot cadence.
View the org dashboard
See how your phishing and training results trend across the organization.
Concepts
Brush up on the core Hook terms — campaigns, groups, templates, and more.
Review and manage enrollment batches
Browse enrollment history, open a batch detail page, and edit, cancel, or retry enrollments depending on their status.
Preview upcoming Autopilot campaigns
Use Campaign Previews to see what Autopilot will send next — the email screenshot, educational context, training video, and the safelist IPs your IT team must allowlist.