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When a message arrives, exactly one agent may answer it — or none. This page is how that is decided.

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The rule

1

Has an agent already answered this conversation?

The first AI reply on a thread latches that agent to it, and every later message goes to the same one. Without that, routing would be re-decided per message: reorder the list on a Tuesday afternoon and the customer gets a different name, a different tone and no memory of the promise made two messages ago.
2

Otherwise, the first agent on the list that covers the channel

Only agents that are switched on are considered, in list order, top to bottom. The first whose channels include this conversation’s channel answers.
3

Otherwise, nobody

There is no fallback. An agent scoped to Instagram will not answer a WhatsApp thread just because it is the only one you have. The conversation is simply left for a person.
If the latched agent has since been switched off or deleted, the thread is re-routed by the rule above rather than staying mute for ever.

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Channels

On the Routing tab, the Channels chips are WhatsApp, Instagram and Web chat. Each is a toggle and saves immediately. Selecting none means every channel. That is the usual answer with one agent, and it is what an agent carries by default. Selecting some means only those: conversations on the others are left for another agent, or for a human.

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The order of the list

The list on AI Agents & Bots is the routing order, which is why it is a list rather than a grid. Each row has up and down arrows and its position number. If two agents both cover WhatsApp, the one higher up answers. A sensible arrangement for a workspace with several:
  1. The narrow, specific agent — bookings, or an Instagram-only DM agent
  2. The general one, covering every channel, catching whatever falls through

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Name and model

Name in your list is internal. Customers never see it — that is the Agent name on the Persona tab. Model is editable only while the workspace runs on its own provider key. Leave it empty to follow the workspace default. On built-in AI credits the field reads Built-in AI (chosen for you) and is disabled: one shared key serves every workspace, so it runs on a tier that stays fast for everyone. The provider itself is never per-agent — there is one key for the workspace and it belongs to one provider. See Credits and your own key.

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Overriding routing on one conversation

The thread header in the inbox has an owner control listing AI agents and then Teammates. Picking an agent hands that thread to it, clears any human owner and resumes AI replies there. Picking a teammate gives the thread to a person, which silences the agent on it — see Working a conversation. Beside it, a bot button pauses and resumes AI replies for that one conversation. A handoff sets that pause automatically, and this is how you lift it.

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When an agent will not be reached at all

Routing is only the first of several gates. A message can reach the right agent and still get no reply — because a flow or an automation already answered it, because the thread is assigned to a person, because test mode excludes that number, or because the conversation’s reply budget is used up. Why is my agent silent? lists them in the order they are checked.
Instagram DM agents are ordinary agents scoped to Instagram — the same engine, the same studio. The Channels → Instagram → DM agents screen shows which of them apply and in what order. See DM agents.