Documentation

Everything you need to use BoardSMS effectively.

How it works

The end-to-end flow from Trello to SMS and back.

BoardSMS is a two-way bridge between your Trello board and SMS.

Card created or moved

Trello fires a webhook to BoardSMS. The app checks for a matching automation rule and, if found, queues an SMS to the contact linked to that card.

SMS is sent

The Cloudflare Queue picks up the message, applies rate-limit checks, sends it via Mobile Message, and posts a delivery confirmation as a comment on the Trello card.

Customer replies

Mobile Message forwards the reply to BoardSMS, which finds the matching card by phone number and posts the customer's reply as a card comment.

All sends go through a Cloudflare Queue for reliability. Failed messages are automatically retried up to 3 times when auto-retry is enabled in Settings.

Contact detection

How BoardSMS finds the phone number and name for a card.

BoardSMS automatically extracts contact info from a card's name and description when the card is created or moved. No manual linking required.

Phone number formats detected

Format	Example	Notes
`Phone: ...`	Phone: 0412 345 678	Label prefix — highest priority
`Mobile: ...`	Mobile: 0412345678	Also: Mob, Tel, Contact Number
`04XX XXX XXX`	0412 345 678	AU mobile, with or without spaces
`+61 4XX XXX XXX`	+61 412 345 678	International AU format
`+614XXXXXXXX`	+61412345678	E.164 format

Name extraction (in priority order)

Explicit label — Name: John Smith, Customer: ..., Client: ...
An email address found in the text
The card title itself (everything before the first " - ")

Reference ID

Pattern	Example	Extracted
`SB-XXXXX`	SB-12345	SB-12345
`Ref: XXX`	Ref: Q-99	Q-99
`#XXXX`	#12345	12345

Example card description

Name: Sarah Johnson
Phone: 0412 345 678
Ref: SB-9921

Enquiry about wedding photography package.

If a card has no phone number on creation, BoardSMS will also scan new comments added to the card — useful when a tool like Sendboard posts contact details as a comment.

@sms command

Trigger an SMS directly from a Trello card comment.

Add a comment starting with @sms to any card to send an SMS immediately. BoardSMS detects it, sends the message, and replaces the comment with a delivery confirmation.

Free-text message

Trello comment

@sms Your appointment is confirmed for Thursday at 2pm.

Everything after @sms is sent exactly as written.

Send a saved template

Trello comment

@sms template:appointment_confirm

Use template: followed by the template slug. Placeholders like {{name}} are filled in automatically.

The card must have a linked contact. If no phone number is found, BoardSMS posts an error comment on the card.

Templates & placeholders

Reusable messages with dynamic contact data.

Templates are saved message bodies with {{placeholder}} tags filled in at send time. Manage them under Templates.

Placeholder	Value
`{{name}}`	Contact name, or "there" if unknown
`{{phone}}`	Contact phone number
`{{ref_id}}`	Reference ID from the card, or "N/A"
`{{date}}`	Today's date — DD/MM/YYYY (AU)
`{{time}}`	Current time in AEST/AEDT

Example

Template body

Hi {{name}}, thanks for your enquiry (Ref: {{ref_id}}).
We'll be in touch shortly. Sent {{date}} at {{time}}.

Rendered for Sarah Johnson / SB-9921:

SMS sent to customer

Hi Sarah Johnson, thanks for your enquiry (Ref: SB-9921).
We'll be in touch shortly. Sent 24/04/2026 at 10:30 AM.

Keep slugs short and lowercase — e.g. welcome_msg, booking_confirm. They're used in @sms template:slug and in automation rules.

Automation rules

Automatically send SMS when cards are created or move between lists.

Trigger	When it fires
Card created	A new card is added to the board and a phone number is detected.
Card moved to list	A card is dragged into a specific list. Optionally restricted to only fire when coming from a particular source list.

Source list filter

For list-movement triggers you can set an optional source list — the rule only fires when a card moves from that specific list into the destination. Leave it blank to fire from anywhere.

Example setup

Rule	Trigger	Template
New enquiry	Card created	welcome_msg
Booking confirmed	Moves to → Confirmed	booking_confirm
Job complete	Moves: In Progress → Done	followup_msg

Automations only fire if the card has a linked contact. If no phone number was found when the card was created, no SMS will be sent even if a rule matches.

Inbound SMS replies

How customer replies get posted back to Trello.

When a customer replies, Mobile Message forwards the message to your inbound webhook. BoardSMS looks up the contact by phone number and posts the reply as a comment on the linked card.

Trello comment (auto-posted)

📱 SMS from Sarah Johnson (+61412345678):

Thanks, see you Thursday!

Phone matching tries multiple formats — 61412345678, +61412345678, 0412345678 — to handle normalisation differences between how Mobile Message sends numbers vs. how they were stored.

Trello Power-Up

Send SMS directly from a card without leaving Trello.

The BoardSMS Power-Up adds a button to every Trello card for sending a free-text or template SMS on demand.

Install the Power-Up

In Trello: board menu → Power-Ups → Custom Power-Ups → add by manifest URL:

https://boardsms.com/powerup/manifest.json

Open any card

Click a card. In the card back under Power-Ups, click Send SMS.

Compose and send

Type a free-text message or pick a template. The contact's phone number is pre-filled from the card.

The Power-Up can be disabled from Settings → Behaviour if you only want automations and @sms comments.

Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to fix them.

No SMS sent when a card is moved

Check that (1) an automation rule exists for that target list, (2) the rule is active, (3) the card has a linked contact with a valid phone number, and (4) the rate limit cooldown hasn't blocked the send. Check the Message Log for blocked or failed entries.

@sms comment does nothing

The card must have a linked contact. BoardSMS posts an error comment on the card if it can't find one. Also confirm your Trello webhook is registered under Settings → Webhooks.

Customer replies aren't appearing on the card

Confirm the Inbound Message callback URL is configured in your Mobile Message dashboard (Settings → API → Webhooks). The URL should be your app URL + /api/sms/inbound.

Trello webhook not firing

Go to Settings → Webhooks and click Register Webhooks to re-register on all active boards. Trello webhooks expire if the callback URL returns non-2xx responses repeatedly.

The Trello account you're logging in with must be a member of at least one board listed under Active Boards in Settings. Add the account to the board in Trello first, then try again.

SMS shows delivered but customer didn't receive it

Check the phone number format. Australian mobiles must start with 04 or +614. Numbers stored in a non-standard format may normalise incorrectly. Verify the stored number on the Contacts page.