Beast Mode: Build Conditional Logic That Thinks for You

When Data Alone Isn't Enough

Mapping CSV columns to layers gets you 80% of the way to full automation. But real-world design work is full of exceptions. The "SALE" badge should only appear when the discount column is above 20%. The background color needs to change based on the product category. The legal disclaimer should be hidden for domestic products but visible for imports.

Handling these exceptions manually defeats the purpose of automation. You'd still be touching every file, making judgment calls row by row. That's where Beast Mode comes in.

What Beast Mode Does

Beast Mode is Xlaypand's built-in conditional logic engine. It lets you define rules in plain language terms: IF a condition is true, THEN perform an action — and optionally, ELSE perform a different action. No scripting. No code editor. You build rules visually inside the plugin panel, and they execute automatically during every batch run.

Each rule consists of a source (a CSV column or layer property), an operator (equals, contains, greater than, etc.), a value, and a target with an action. The target can be any layer or group in your document — not just the layer the card belongs to. That's the real power: one rule on a text layer can show or hide a completely different group, change the opacity of a shape layer, or swap a Smart Object. Actions range from simple visibility toggles to color overlays, opacity changes, text style modifications, and Smart Object replacements. You can add explicit ELSE branches that fire when conditions fail — supporting all 11 action types. Read the full ELSE Blocks deep dive.

Real-World Use Cases

Multi-Market Social Media Ads

A marketing agency manages social campaigns for a fashion brand across six European markets. Each market has its own language, currency, regulatory labels, and seasonal promotions. The template is one Photoshop file with 40+ layers, and the CSV contains 600 product rows across all markets.

Without Beast Mode, the agency would need six separate templates — or one template with manual toggling for every row. With Beast Mode, the rules handle everything:

• IF market equals "DE" → show the German text group, hide all others, set the currency symbol to "€"
• IF market equals "UK" → show English text, swap "€" for "£", show the "Free Returns" badge
• IF discount is greater than 0 → show the "SALE" overlay, change the price color to red
• IF category equals "Outerwear" AND season equals "Winter" → apply the dark background variant

One template, one CSV, one batch run. All 600 assets export correctly localized and personalized — in under an hour.

Dynamic Pricing Labels

A retailer generates shelf labels for 2,000 SKUs. Products on clearance get a red "CLEARANCE" banner and a strikethrough original price. Regular items show a clean white label. Premium items get a gold border and a "Member Price" line. Beast Mode handles all three visual treatments from a single template — one rule per pricing tier, no manual toggling.

Compliance-Driven Disclaimers

A supplement company ships to the US, EU, and Australia. Each market requires different legal disclaimers, allergen warnings, and certification badges. Beast Mode checks the region column and toggles the correct disclaimer group, swaps the certification logo Smart Object, and adjusts the footer text — all within one template. Adding a new market means adding one CSV column value and one new rule, not rebuilding the layout.

Available Actions

Beast Mode supports 11 action types — covering virtually everything you can do manually in Photoshop. When a condition evaluates to true, the rule can:

• Visibility toggle — show or hide any layer or group
• Opacity — set a layer's opacity to a specific value
• Color overlay (FX) — apply a color overlay via layer effects
• Text content — override text layer contents with a custom string
• Text style — change font, size, weight, or color
• Text style (advanced) — apply caps, underline, strikethrough, or shadow effects
• Smart Object replacement — swap the contents of a Smart Object with a different file
• Blending mode — change a layer's blend mode
• Group blending — apply blend modes to entire groups
• Layer position — move layers to absolute or relative coordinates

Every action supports full ELSE branches, and every action is fully reversible between rows. The plugin restores the original state before processing the next row, so your master template stays clean throughout the entire run.