Your AI Agent
Auto-Responder Rules
Control who your AI agent responds to, when it's active, and how it handles groups.
Overview
By default, your AI agent doesn't respond to anyone automatically. The auto-responder rules let you control exactly who it talks to, when it's active, and how it behaves in group chats.
Find these settings in your instance settings page, under Auto-Responder Rules.
Respond to Direct Messages
Agent responds to 1-on-1 messages
Respond to Saved Contacts Only
Only respond to contacts in your address book
Operating Hours
Restrict when the agent is active
Timezone
Mode
Start
End
Direct message handling
Respond to Direct Messages
This is the main on/off switch for your agent. When turned on, the agent will respond to one-on-one messages sent to your WhatsApp number.
When turned off, the agent stays silent on all direct messages. You can still see incoming messages in the Chat section of your dashboard.
Contact filtering
You can narrow down which contacts your agent talks to.
Respond to Saved Contacts Only
When enabled, the agent only responds to contacts that are saved in your phone's address book. Messages from unknown numbers are ignored.
Use case: You only want the agent to help existing customers or team members.
Respond to New/Unsaved Contacts Only
When enabled, the agent only responds to contacts that are NOT in your address book. Messages from saved contacts are ignored.
Use case: You want the agent to handle new inquiries while you personally manage existing relationships.
These two options are mutually exclusive — you can only enable one at a time.
Number whitelist and blacklist
For finer control, you can specify exact phone numbers.
Include Numbers (Whitelist)
Enter phone numbers, one per line. If this list is not empty, the agent will only respond to these numbers and ignore everyone else.
Use case: You want the agent to only respond to a specific set of customers or test numbers.
Exclude Numbers (Blacklist)
Enter phone numbers, one per line. The agent will never respond to numbers on this list, even if they match other rules.
Use case: Block specific numbers from getting automated responses — for example, your own number, or contacts you want to handle personally.
Operating hours
Control when your agent is active based on time of day.
Setting up operating hours
- Turn on the Operating Hours toggle
- Select your Timezone (defaults to your browser's timezone)
- Choose a Mode:
- Active During — The agent responds only during the specified hours
- Active Outside — The agent responds only outside the specified hours (useful for after-hours support)
- Set the Start Time and End Time
Example configurations
Agent active during business hours only:
- Mode: Active During
- Start: 09:00
- End: 17:00
- The agent responds from 9 AM to 5 PM and stays silent outside those hours.
Agent active only after hours:
- Mode: Active Outside
- Start: 09:00
- End: 17:00
- The agent stays silent from 9 AM to 5 PM (when your team is available) and handles messages outside those hours.
Available timezones
The platform supports common timezones including:
- Africa/Nairobi
- Africa/Lagos
- Africa/Johannesburg
- UTC
- America/New_York
- America/Los_Angeles
- Europe/London
- Europe/Paris
- Asia/Dubai
- Asia/Singapore
Group chat rules
By default, the agent ignores group messages. You can configure it to respond in specific groups.
Adding a group rule
- In the Specific Groups to Respond To section, click to open the group selector
- Search for the group you want to add
- Select it from the list
- For each group, choose whether to require a mention:
- Mention required (on) — The agent only responds when someone mentions it or replies to one of its messages in the group
- Mention not required (off) — The agent responds to all messages in the group
When to require mentions
In busy groups, you almost always want to require mentions. Otherwise, the agent will try to respond to every single message, which can be disruptive.
Requiring mentions means people need to @mention the agent or reply directly to its messages to trigger a response.
How rules work together
The auto-responder rules are checked in this order:
- Is the agent turned on for direct messages or is there a matching group rule?
- Is the sender blacklisted? → If yes, ignore.
- Is there a whitelist and is the sender on it? → If not on the list, ignore.
- Does the sender match the contact filter (saved only / new only)?
- Is the current time within operating hours?
- Is the conversation already escalated to a human? → If yes, the agent stays silent.
The agent only responds if all applicable checks pass.
Saving your rules
After configuring your rules, click Save Rules. Changes take effect immediately.
Next steps
- Knowledge Base — Give your agent documents to reference when answering questions
- AI Providers & Models — Change which AI model powers your agent