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Close a Formstack form after a set number of entries

An event form should stop taking entries at 150, or you end up with 170 sign-ups for 150 seats. Formstack can close a form by itself, but you set it in each form's settings, one form at a time.

Cotlet does it in your own Formstack account with list_forms, get_form and set_form_availability, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Can Formstack do this on its own?

Formstack closes a form on a date or after a number of submissions by itself, set in the form's General Settings (checked 22 Oct 2026). The gap is doing it on many forms from one instruction. The Forms API updates form properties, but the reference we read does not list these settings, and it needs the add-on, a token and your own code.

How you do it in Formstack today

  1. An admin opens the form, goes to Settings > General Settings and sets Form Status to Conditional.
  2. Under Disable Settings the admin picks a date and time, or a number of submissions, after which the form closes. Formstack also offers closing when inventory sells out.
  3. The admin turns on Disable Message and writes what visitors see, because the default is "This form has been deactivated and is closed to any further submissions."
  4. The admin checks Time Zone for Submissions and saves.
  5. The setting is per form, so ten event forms mean ten visits to the same page.

How to close a Formstack form after a set number of entries

Prompt

Close every form in the Events folder after 150 submissions, with the message "Registration is full." Tell me which ones already have more.
  1. 01

    Pick the forms

    list_forms returns the forms of the folder with their submission counts, and the agent follows next_cursor to the end. Forms in the Archived Forms folder are skipped, because they are closed already.

  2. 02

    Read the current state

    get_form shows each form's availability. A form that already closes on a date is listed for you instead of being overwritten, and a form already over the limit is reported to you.

  3. 03

    Choose how it closes

    The agent uses after_submissions for a cap. The now mode moves the form to the Archived Forms folder, out of the folder a user with limited access can see, so the agent uses it only when you ask for it by name.

  4. 04

    Set the limit and message

    set_form_availability sets the number and the message visitors see. It decides when your public form stops taking entries, so each call waits for your OK by default.

  5. 05

    Report how to reopen

    The agent lists the forms changed with their limit. To reopen an expired form it sets availability back to never; an archived form is restored from the Archived Forms folder in Formstack.

What you get back

Example data

Forms in Events: 8
Close after 150 submissions: 6
Already closed on a date: 1 (Spring gala)
Already over 150: 1 (Open day, 171 submissions)
Message: "Registration is full."

Other ways to ask

  • Close the Summer camp form on 31 July at 23:59 with the message "Registration has ended."
  • Reopen every expired form in the Events folder and set the limit to 300.
  • List forms that will close within 10 submissions, and change nothing.

What Formstack allows, and what to know first

  • A form that closes by date or submission count stays in its folder with a red badge next to its name, while Now moves it to the Archived Forms folder and out of the folder.
  • Formstack counts archived and expired forms toward the form allowance of your plan.
  • Save and Resume does not work while a form is disabled, so people with a saved entry lose it when the form closes.
  • The default closed message can be replaced with your own text through the Disable Message option.

set_form_availability asks for your OK by default. To run it on a schedule without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: Formstack Help: Form Activation · Formstack Help: How do I deactivate a form and what happens to the form once it is deactivated · Formstack Help: Account Limits for Formstack Forms

Call set_form_availability from a script

curl

curl -X PUT https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/formstack/forms/5128834/availability \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"disable":"after_submissions","after_submissions":150,"message":"Registration is full."}'

Example response

{
  "form_id": "5128834",
  "disable": "after_submissions",
  "after_submissions": 150,
  "message": "Registration is full.",
  "folder": "Events"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the call is formstack_write → set_form_availability. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

Formstack tools this automation uses

Cotlet Formstack tools used to close a Formstack form after a set number of entries
Tool Parameters
list_forms query, folder_id, cursor
get_form form_id
set_form_availability form_id, disable, on_date, after_submissions, message
All 12 Formstack tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

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