Intake Deduplication Agent

TL;DR: This multi-action Wrike AI agent checks new intake requests for duplicates or near-duplicates by comparing their title and description against items in an “Active Projects” folder using meaning-based matching, not just exact text. It then posts a comment indicating whether a likely duplicate, no match, or an uncertain match was found, and automatically routes only unique requests into Active Projects while leaving possible duplicates in intake for manual review. It’s ideal for teams with high request volume, helps prevent duplicate work from entering the pipeline, and can be customized for different matching rules, routing logic, and follow-up actions like status updates.

Hello Community! 👋

Today we’re sharing a guide to set up an Intake Deduplication Agent that scans new incoming requests, compares them against items in your folder using meaning-based matching, and helps prevent duplicate work from entering your pipeline.

Below, you’ll find the full configuration, prompts, setup instructions, and customization ideas so you can plug this into your intake workflow ✔️

Agent Goal / Use Case

Your intake folder receives more than 50 requests each week, and about 15% are duplicates or near-duplicates of work already in your pipeline. They are often the same project described in different words. By the time someone notices, a kickoff meeting may already be scheduled for work that already exists.

A standard automation rule can match exact field values, but it cannot recognize that “Acme Corp website redesign” and “ACME - redesign of corporate site” refer to the same project.

How It Works

The Intake Deduplication Agent is a multi-action agent that:

When a new request lands in your intake folder.
Reads the new request’s title and description.
It scans a reference folder (e.g. "Active Projects") for items with similar names, descriptions, or scope, fuzzy matching by meaning.
Action 1 posts a comment: duplicate found, no match, or uncertain.
Action 2 routes the request to Active Projects if it's new, or leaves it in intake for manual review if a duplicate was flagged.

Features Used

Cross-folder lookup — agent reads items from a different folder than where it's appointed
Location change — agent moves/adds items to the correct folder
Action filtering — actions only apply to tasks in Status = New
Action naming — actions are labeled "Check for Duplicates" and "Route Request" in the activity log

Prerequisites

Before setting this up, make sure you have:

1. An Intake Folder

This is where new requests are created.

2. An Active Projects Folder

This folder will act as the reference source the agent checks against.

3. A clear request structure

At minimum, incoming items should have:

Title
Description

The better the request details, the better the duplicate detection quality.

Setting	Value
Name	Intake Deduplication Agent
Trigger	New item created
Action Scope	The work item where the trigger happened
Acton 1 Name	Check for Duplicates
Action 1 Type	Post a comment
Action 1 Filter	Item type: Task, Status: New
Action 2 Name	Route Request
Action 2 Type	Location change - Add to location
Action 2 Filter	Item type: Task, Status: New
Appointment	Your intake/requests folder

Prompt

General Instructions

ROLE: You are an Intake Deduplication Specialist.

CONTEXT: You have access to items in the current folder (incoming requests)

and in the "Active Projects" folder [📁 embed location chip for your Active Projects folder].

REFERENCE DATA:

When comparing items, consider a match if ANY of these are similar:

- Client or company name (including abbreviations, variations, and partial matches)

- Project description or scope of work

- Key deliverables mentioned

A match does not need to be exact. Use your judgment:

- "Acme Corp website redesign" and "ACME - redesign of corporate site" → MATCH (same client, same project)

- "Acme Corp website redesign" and "Acme Corp billing integration" → NOT A MATCH (same client, different project)
- "Q3 brand refresh" and "Brand refresh - third quarter" → MATCH (same initiative, different wording)

Action 1 — Post a Comment

Action name: Check for Duplicates

Copy-paste the following into Action 1:

Read the title and description of this incoming request.

Scan all items in the "Active Projects" folder [📁 location chip].

Compare each active project against this request using the matching

criteria in the general instruction.

IF a likely match is found:

Action 2 — Location Change (Add to location)

Action name: Route Request

Copy-paste the following into Action 2:

Read the comment posted by the previous action on this item.

IF the comment says "No duplicates found" (the request is new and unique):

Add this item to the "Active Projects" folder [📁 location chip].

IF the comment says "Possible duplicate detected" or "Uncertain match":

Do NOT move this item. Leave it in the intake folder for manual review.

Setup Steps

Step 1: Create the Agent

Go to Space Settings → AI Agents → Create Custom AI Agent
Name the agent “Intake Deduplication Agent”
Set the Trigger to “New item created”
Paste the General Instructions into the instructions field. Replace the location chip placeholder with your actual "Active Projects" folder — type @ or use the folder picker to embed the chip .

Step 2: Configure Action 1

Add Action 1
Select Post a comment
Name it “Check for Duplicates”
Paste the Action 1 prompt
Add the filter: Item type = Task, Status = New

Step 3: Configure Action 2

Add Action 2
Select Location change (Add to location)
Name it “Route Request”
Paste the Action 2 prompt
Select your "Active Projects" folder as the target location
Add the same filter: Item type = Task, Status = New

Step 4: Appoint the Agent

Appoint the agent to your intake/requests folder.

Step 5: Test in Playground

Before rolling it out broadly, test with a few examples:

Customization

1. Different matching criteria

Adjust the "REFERENCE DATA" section in the general instruction to match your domain:

Examples:

Support tickets: Match on error messages, affected product/module, and customer name
Bug reports: Match on reproduction steps, error codes, and affected component
RFPs / proposals: Match on client name, industry, and requested services
Creative briefs: Match on campaign name, brand, and target audience

2. Stricter or looser matching

To reduce false positives: Add "Only flag a match if at least two criteria match simultaneously."
To catch more duplicates: Add "Also consider partial matches , if the client name matches but the project description is different, flag as uncertain."

3. Different routing behavior

Move instead of add: Change Action 2 from "Add to location" to "Move to location" if you want the item removed from intake entirely.
Route to different folders based on type: Add more location chips and adjust the Action 2 prompt: "If no duplicate and the request mentions 'design', add to the Creative Projects folder. If it mentions 'engineering', add it to the Engineering Backlog folder."

4. Adding a status change

If you want the agent to also update the request's status after routing, add a third action:

Action 3 name: "Update Status"
Action 3 type: Change status
Prompt: "If this item was moved to Active Projects, change its status to 'In Review.' If it was flagged as a duplicate, change its status to 'Needs Review.”

Tips

Start small. Appoint to one intake folder with 10-20 items in the reference folder. Verify the matching quality before scaling.
Check the activity log. The agent's reasoning shows exactly why it flagged (or didn't flag) a match. Use action names "Check for Duplicates" and "Route Request" to quickly find what you're looking for.
Reference folder size matters. Cross-folder lookup works well up to a few hundred items. If your Active Projects folder has thousands of items, consider narrowing with a filter or using a more specific reference folder.
The uncertain category is your friend. It's better to flag an uncertain match for human review than to miss a duplicate or incorrectly block a new request.

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Comments

Anna Giacobbe

- Have duplicate requests been a challenge in your intake workflow? Yes! Sometimes, folks either forget they've submitted a request or someone else submits the same one due to miscommunication over ownership.

- Would this Agent be useful for your team? If we were able to enable AI (still waiting for my AM to send us the addendum to resubmit internally for risk verification), this would be super useful!

- How would you customize it for your own process or use case? I'd get this set up for our service teams' requests and especially for our email send requests which is something we are trying to govern more to be able to reduce the amount of emails we send to our audiences.

Rohan V

Hi @Anna Giacobbe, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! 😁

Nikos Taskos

Hmmm will defo take time to set up this one. This can be a game changer!

David Simmington

- Have duplicate requests been a challenge in your intake workflow? Not recently, which is actually surprising. We'll continue to keep an eye out.

- Would this Agent be useful for your team? Yes, I could see this being super useful if duplicate requests ever became a problem. Great idea!

- How would you customize it for your own process or use case? We'd probably add some additional review layers.

Fabio Bartolini

- Have duplicate requests been a challenge in your intake workflow? Sometimes yes.

- Would this Agent be useful for your team? Yes, absolutely!

- How would you customize it for your own process or use case? Probably for email send requests.

Rohan V

Hi all 👋 Thank you so much for reading this post and sharing your comments, I really appreciate the time and effort you’ve put in!

Florian Gascho

We're personally not really struggling with double intakes however we are struggling with not fully complete forms so perhaps we can take some inspiration from that!

Rohan V

Thanks for sharing this, @Florian Gascho 😊

Sherrie Besecker

Have duplicate requests been a challenge in your intake workflow? Yes - especially for user account and access requests!

Would this Agent be useful for your team? Yep!!

How would you customize it for your own process or use case? Add in for response and confirm duplication, move items, and change statuses!

Ben Thomas

It could be useful to identify duplicate values across custom fields. We have many business units working in different spaces and custom field management can be challenging

Rohan V

Hi @Sherrie Besecker and @Ben Thomas 👋

Thank you both for sharing your comments! It’s very informative to read how this agent can help with your use cases.

Kirsten Gross

I am definitely going to implement this! We get duplicate projects often as people think they've deleted their duplicate project but we still have floating tasks hanging around. The only tweak I'd make is to maybe not get a notification if there is NO duplicate, to cut back on the notifications we get.

Daisy Hibbard

We are a small enough company where duplicative work in Wrike is never a problem, but I can see how this would be valuable for large companies, especially where employees might report the same tech or customer issue and IT could use an agent like this. But great to know this exists and something I'll keep in mind if we ever experience an issue with duplicate tasks or projects!

Rohan V

@Kirsten Gross, awesome! Do let us know your feedback after implementing this agent. We’d love to hear how it helps you.

Rohan V

@Daisy Hibbard, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Glad to hear it’s something you’ll keep in mind if duplicate tasks or projects ever become an issue :)